Global Think Tanks

by James McGann, Richard Sabatini

Global Think Tanks provides a clear description of and context for the global proliferation of think tanks. Whilst these institutions are still relatively new players in global and national politics, they are becoming a significant source of strength in an increasingly transnational and less Western-led world. This work presents an important guide to the factors contributing to the proliferation of think tanks, the present nature of this proliferation, and the future of think tanks at the global, regional, and national level. The Examining the issues that face think tanks on a global scale, this book will be of great interest to all students of international relations and international organizations.

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2010

Reviews

[André · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book gives a decent overview on global think tanks and their diversity in type, managment, topics, understanding or financing. I was expecting a more profound analysis especially as I have found some wrong information on some German think tanks at least.

[Hiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book 'Global Think Tanks: Policy Networks and Governance' provides an introduction to global think tanks and policy networks. The book roughly defines a global think tank as a think tank which has branches in a country other than where the headquarter is based. Policy networks are defined as a group which connects policy organizations around the world in various ways such as sharing knowledge or personnel. The book begins with the origins of think tanks, which blossomed in the US after the end of the Second World War mostly to deal with military matters. Then it describes the rise of global think tanks and policy networks in the 1990s due to the fall of the Soviet Union and the accelerating democratization of various countries, in addition to the revolution in information technology which has allowed groups to disseminate information to people all around the world with little cost. In order for think tanks to function effectively, free flow of information is a necessity, so the ability of a think tank to operate in a country is indicative of how democratized a country is. The major advantage of global think tanks and policy networks is that they can get timely, on-the-ground information of various countries through their branches or networks, so they can more effectively deal with issues which are increasingly becoming transnational such as climate change and ethnic conflicts. The book also discusses the difficulties facing these organizations, where the most crucial one is lack of funding, in addition to keeping themselves relevant to policymakers. The book gives various examples to illustrate these points and show the diversity of the organizational principles of various groups.

The book does a decent job of describing the origins, roles, and the future of global think tanks for the novice. However, some points of the book are repeated much too frequently. This is particularly true for discussions on the role of advances in information technology in helping the proliferation of think tanks throughout the world. Hitting home a point by repeating it is a good thing, but the degree to which this book does this sometimes is a little too much. Sometimes almost whole sentences are repeated from previous pages. Another point is that although the book distinguishes between global think tanks and policy networks, the book sometimes weaves in discussions of the two liberally, and it can be hard to follow which one of them the book is discussing.

Overall, the book is a good introduction to global think tanks and policy networks, but there are some structural flaws such as too much repeating information and not making certain distinctions clear enough for the lay reader to follow what is being discussed.