Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program

History

TTCSP was established at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in 1989. It began with a focus on think tanks in the US. In the 1990s, the program became increasingly global, at least in part as a result of the political and economic transformation taking place in Central and Eastern Europe.

In the late 1990s, Diane Stone and Erik Johnson plus R. Kent Weaver of the Brookings Institution and James McGann of the Foreign Policy Research Institute were asked to help conceptualize what became the Global Development Network — initially a World Bank-sponsored conference in Barcelona, Spain. Diane Stone and Erik Johnson subsequently joined the World Bank Institute to help launch the GDN that subsequently grew into an Indian-headquartered international organisation focused on the global south.

In 2008, the TTCSP moved to the International Relations Program and the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

It was dissolved in 2021 following the death of McGann.

''Global Go To Think Tank Index''

McGann and the TTCSP published the annual Global Go To Think Tank Index. As of 2010, the Index was based on a three-phase survey methodology somewhat similar to university rankings in the US; participants in the collation of the index and its ranking processes included think tank academic experts, politicians, political scientists, think tank donors and staff, and think tanks themselves. However, this methodology for the study, ranking and assessment of policy institutes has been criticized by researchers such as Enrique Mendizabal and Goran Buldioski, Director of the Think Tank Fund, assisted by the Open Society Institute.

In 2018, the Index listed the United States as the nation with the largest number of think tanks (1871), followed by India (509), China (507), United Kingdom (321), Argentina (227), Germany (218), Russia (215), France (203), Japan (128), Italy (114), Brazil (103), Canada (100), and South Africa (93).

In its last edition, in 2020, the Index noted that there were over 11,000 think tanks worldwide.

References

References

1. Foreign Policy Research Institute, "Think Tanks and Foreign Policy Program", 2001–2010, "[http://www.fpri.org/research/thinktanks/objectives.html Source 1] {{Webarchive. link. (22 October 2012 ", 6 July 2010)
2. "James G. McGann – Foreign Policy Research Institute".
3. (5 October 2015). "Are think tanks obsolete?". The Washington Post.
4. "The Think Tanks and Civil Society Program {{!}} About Us".
5. International Relations @ UPenn, "2009 Global Rankings of Think Tanks", 2010, "[http://www.sas.upenn.edu/irp/2009GlobalRankingsofThinkTanks.htm Source 7] {{Webarchive. link. (7 June 2011 ", 6 July 2010)
6. "Selected List of Publications – FPRI".
7. Brookings Institution, "R. Kent Weaver", 2010, "[http://www.brookings.edu/experts/weaverr.aspx Source 3] {{Webarchive. link. (15 February 2010 ", 6 July 2010)
8. link. (21 May 2013 ", 6 July 2010)
9. "CASE bids farewell to James G. McGann, Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program director".
10. (17 September 2014). "A&M think tank aims to solve state issues". [[Houston Chronicle]].
11. Seiler, Christian, and Klaus Wohlrabe. "A critique of the 2009 global 'Go-to Think Tanks' ranking". ''CESifo DICE Report'' 8.2 (2010): 60.
12. Mendizabal, Enrique. (21 January 2011). "Another year, another ranking of think tanks (and surprise surprise, Brookings is still the best)". On Think Tanks.
13. Buldioski, Goran. (January 23, 2011). "Mirror, mirror on the wall... tell me who is the best think tank in the world?". Goran's Musings.
14. (29 January 2019). "2018 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report". ScholarlyCommons [[University of Pennsylvania]].