Friday, January 30, 2015

Republicans Confront DeMint over Think Tank's Ratings

Here is what Politico is reporting:
Long-simmering tensions between The Heritage Foundation, its sister political arm and House Republicans erupted Tuesday during a weekly meeting of conservatives, as GOP lawmakers confronted the nonprofit group’s leader behind closed doors.
Several Republican lawmakers unleashed on Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint — a former South Carolina senator — griping mostly about Heritage Action’s legislative scorecard. The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action are related groups, but the latter advocates for policy and has a scorecard that judges lawmakers’ voting records on Capitol Hill.
 heated exchange came just one day before conservative Republicans headed to the Salamander Resort and Spa in Virginia for a retreat hosted by The Heritage Foundation.
...Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, pressed DeMint on the separation between the foundation and its political arm, Heritage Action. Conaway said he doesn’t believe there is a clear separation between the organizations, according to multiple sources who were in the meeting. Republicans applauded Conaway after he was done speaking.

Here is Slate's coverage of the confrontation.  And, Public Slate says the think tank has fallen under control of the Tea Party.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Think Tank Quickies (#159)

  • In response to Ukraine crisis, Berlin to launch new think tank.
  • The role of think tanks in a fragmented global system, via Lowy Institute.
  • Chinese think tanks to ramp up economic, reform studies.
  • UAE think tanks spark policy reform, innovation.
  • FP's Ilya Lozovsky bashes UPenn think tank report, calls it "status quo."
  • Think tanks may hold the vision Australia's politicians lack.
  • Reputation of Spanish think tanks.
  • Think tanks discuss role in global issues.
  • How Congress's dysfunction has degraded its own in-house think tank.
  • CAP reveals major 2014 donors; shows many Clinton ties; donors kept secret; access to Clinton?
  • A think tank like no other; Israeli think tank holds anti-BDS hackathon.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Former Rep. Mike Rogers Joins Hudson Institute

It was just announced that former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) has joined the conservative think tank Hudson Institute as a Distinguished Fellow.  In that role, he will focus on cyberwarefare and security, counterterrorism, and national security policy.

In Congress, Rogers was Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Scores of former lawmakers have gone on to join think tanks; here is a list that Think Tank Watch compiled showing various examples.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Top Free-Market Think Tanks Ranked

President and CEO of Atlas Economic Research Foundation Alejandro Chafuen has ranked the top free-market think tanks for 2014 using how many mentions they had in the just-released University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.  Here are the results:
  1. Heritage Foundation: (21 mentions)
  2. Cato: 20
  3. Fraser Institute: 18
  4. American Enterprise Institute (AEI): 16
  5. Libertad y Desarrollo: 13
  6. CIDAC: 11
  7. IMANI: 10
  8. CEDICE; Atlas Network: 9
  9. Adam Smith Institute; Unirule: 8
  10. Hoover Institution: 7

Even though Heritage had more mentions than Cato (by 1), Cato is considered a higher ranked think tank in the US (#8) compared to Heritage Foundation (#9).

Mr. Chafuen writes extensively about free-market think tanks, and if Dr. James McGann (who runs UPenn's think tank program) is "Mr. Think Tank," Mr. Chafuen is "Mr. Free-Market Think Tank."

Thursday, January 22, 2015

2015 Think Tank Rankings - Cheat Sheet

The 2015 University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings are hot off the press.  Here is a cheat sheet:

Top Think Tanks Worldwide (US and Non-US):
  1. Brookings
  2. Chatham House
  3. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
  4. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  5. Bruegel
  6. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
  7. RAND Corporation
  8. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
  9. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
  10. Wilson Center
  11. Amnesty International (AI)
  12. Transparency International (TI)
  13. Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA)
  14. German Institute for International and Security Affairs
  15. Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
  16. Cato Institute
  17. Heritage Foundation
  18. Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV)
  19. Fraser Institute
  20. French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)

Top Think Tanks in the US:
  1. Brookings
  2. CEIP
  3. CSIS
  4. CFR
  5. Wilson Center
  6. RAND Corporation
  7. Pew Research Center
  8. Cato Institute
  9. Heritage Foundation
  10. Center for American Progress (CAP) 
  11. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
  12. American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
  13. PIIE
  14. Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
  15. World Resources Institute (WRI)
  16. Atlantic Council
  17. Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
  18. James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
  19. Hoover Institution
  20. Urban Institute

Top Think Tanks Worldwide (Non-US):
  1. Chatham House
  2. Bruegel
  3. SIPRI
  4. IISS
  5. Transparency International 
  6. French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)
  7. Amnesty International (AI)
  8. Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
  9. Korea Development Institute (KDI)
  10. Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)

Top Think Tanks in Mexico and Canada:
  1.  Fraser Institute
  2. Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales (COMEXI)
  3. Fundar, Centro de Analisis e Investigacion
  4. Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE)
  5. C.D. Howe Institute 

Top Think Tanks in China, India, Japan, and Korea:
  1. Korea Development Institute (KDI)
  2. Japan Institute for International Affairs (JIIA)
  3. China Institute of International Studies (CIIS)
  4. Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KEIP)
  5. China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR)

Top Think Tanks in Southeast Asia and the Pacific:
  1. Australian Institute for International Affairs (AIIA)
  2. Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  3. Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS)
  4. Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA)
  5. Lowy Institute for International Policy 

Top Think Tanks in Sub-Saharan Africa:
  1. Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA)
  2. IMANI Center for Policy and Education
  3. South Africa Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)
  4. Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
  5. Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA)

Top Think Tanks in Central and South America:
  1. Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV)
  2. Comision Economica para America Latina (CEPAL)
  3. Centro de Implementacion de Politicas Publicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC)
  4. Centro Brasiliero de Relacoes Internacionais (CEBRI)
  5. Consejo Argentina para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI) 

Top Think Tanks in Central Asia:
  1. Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD)
  2. Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS)
  3. Caucuses Research Resource Center (CRRC)
  4. Armat Center for the Development of Democracy and Civil Society
  5. Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) 

Top Think Tanks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA):
  1. Carnegie Middle East Center
  2. Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS)
  3. Brookings Doha Center
  4. Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM)
  5. Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)

Top Think Tanks in Western Europe:
  1. Chatham House
  2. Bruegel
  3. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
  4. French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)
  5. Amnesty International (AI)

Top Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe:
  1. Carnegie Moscow Center
  2. Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE)
  3. Polish International of International Affairs (PISM)
  4. Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO RAS)
  5. Razumkov Centre

Top Defense and Security Think Tanks:
  1. CSIS
  2. RAND Corp.
  3. IISS
  4. Brookings
  5. Chatham House 

Top Foreign Policy and International Affairs:
  1. Brookings
  2. Chatham House
  3. CEIP
  4. CFR
  5. CSIS

Top Domestic Economic Policy Think Tanks:
  1. Brookings
  2. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
  3. Adam Smith Institute (ASI)
  4. PIIE
  5. Cato Institute 

Top Energy and Resource Policy Think Tanks:
  1. Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES)
  2. World Resources Institute (WRI)
  3. Institute of Energy Economics
  4. James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
  5. RAND Corp. 

Top Environment Think Tanks:
  1. World Resources Institute (WRI)
  2. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
  3. Worldwatch Institute
  4. Brookings
  5. Center for Climate and Energy Studies (C2ES)

Top Foreign Policy and International Affairs Think Tanks:
  1. Brookings
  2. Chatham House
  3. CEIP
  4. CFR
  5. CSIS 

Best  For-Profit Think Tanks:
  1. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
  2. McKinsey Global Institute
  3. Google Ideas
  4. Ernst and Young (EY)
  5. Deutsche Bank Research 

Top Education Policy Think Tanks:
  1. Urban Institute
  2. RAND Corporation
  3. Brookings
  4. Cato Institute
  5. National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER) 

Top Domestic Health Policy Think Tanks:
  1. Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research (CCHSR)
  2. RAND Corporation
  3. Brookings
  4. Bloomberg School of Public Health Research Centers (JHSPH)
  5. Fraser Institute
More coming shortly...

The full think tank report can be read here.  Also, here is a press release from UPenn on the think tank rankings.

By the way, you may want to be careful reading too much into think tank rankings.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

New Study: Think Tank Employees Extremely Partisan

Tom VanAntwerp, the Director of Information Technology (IT) at the Tax Foundation, has just written a new piece about think tank employees and the various biases they have.  The conclusion: think tank employees are extremely partisan.  Here are some of the key conclusions:
  • Think tank employees are extremely partisan. According to OpenSecrets, only 0.4% of Americans gave $200+ to partisan causes in 2012. The proportion of a think tanks’ employees who give at that level ranged from 2.9% to 8.7%.
  • Think tank employees overwhelmingly give to Democratic causes. Nearly 78% of all political contributions from think tank employees went to Democrats. 208 think tank employees gave a total of  $452,589 to Democrats in 2012; only 82 employees gave a total of $112,653 to Republicans. Predictably, no one at Heritage or Cato gave to a Democrat and no one at CAP gave to a Republican. The only donation to a Libertarian was $250 from Cato’s former president Ed Crane to the Gary Johnson campaign.
  • The libertarian Cato Institute doesn’t give to Libertarians. There are two possible reasons for this. The first, and probably the one advanced by people who oppose Cato’s policy positions, is that Cato isn’t really libertarian at all. I do suspect that some employees at Cato really are conservative rather than libertarian. The second explanation, and the one I find more likely from personal experience with many employees of Cato, is that they have no faith in the Libertarian Party as a vehicle for policy change.

The raw data from this analysis can be found here.  And here is a chart of the percentage of employees at top ten think tanks giving to political groups during the 2012 election cycle and the partisan division of the total contributions.  Here is a chart of total contributions of top ten think tanks giving to political groups during the 2012 election cycle.

Here is a previous think tank funding piece by Mr. VanAntwerp.  And here is a previous Think Tank Watch post essentially saying the same thing as above: think tank employees tend to support Democrats.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

China Preempts UPenn Think Tank Rankings


China has just released its own think tank report ranking the top think tanks in China, preempting the respected (but deeply flawed) University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings which will be announced this week (yes, Brookings is #1 again).  Here is more:
The "2014 Chinese Think Tank Influence Report" is the first think tank ranking based on objective influence indicators including professional influence, government influence, social influence and international influence, according to a press conference for the report's release in Beijing on Thursday.  In addition to compiling comprehensive rankings, the report also issues rankings on category and influence.  The project team interviewed over 100 experts in the think tank industry and gathered data on 300 major think tanks in China, according to a press release.
The "2014 Chinese Think Tank Influence Report" combines objective indicators with rankings determined by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences to create the final rankings.

The report was jointly issued by the Horizon Institute of Global Development Power, the Horizon Research Consulting Group, and state-run news website China.org.cn.

Here are the top 20 Chinese think tanks:
  1. Development Research Center of the State Council 
  2. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 
  3. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences 
  4. National School of Development, Peking University 
  5. Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC 
  6. Academy of Macroeconomic Research, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) 
  7. Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning 
  8. China Center for International Economic Exchange 
  9. Horizon Research Consultancy Group 
  10. Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China 
  11. Center for China Studies, School of Public Policy and Management 
  12. China Institute for Reform and Development 
  13. Center for China & Globalization 
  14. China Society for Economic Reform 
  15. Center for American Studies, Fudan University 
  16. Institute of Modern International Relations, Tsinghua University 
  17. China Finance 40 Forum 
  18. China Institute of International Studies 
  19. PLA National Defense University 
  20. Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation

In related news, China has just issued a detailed guide for a "new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics."  Among other things, Chinese think tanks should stick to Marxist ideology, according to the guidelines.

Think Tanks Slammed for Absence of Women in Middle East Debates

Think tanks were slammed today by two scholars for their absence of women in Middle East policy debates.  The authors in the Washington Post piece, Tamara Cofman Wittes of Brookings and Marc Lynch of GWU, said that last year, six leading Washington think tanks held more than 150 events on the Middle East that included not a single woman speaker.  Here is more:
Fewer than one-quarter of all the speakers at the 232 events at those think tanks recorded in our newly compiled data-set were women. How is it possible that in 2014, not a single woman could be found to speak at 65 percent of these influential and high-profile D.C. events?
...As for the think tanks, women run the Middle East Institute, the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution (Tamara Cofman Wittes), the Middle East Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Center for the Middle East and Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and play key roles at the Middle East programs of the Center for a New American Security and the Atlantic Council.
...The paucity of women’s voices in public discussion comes not just from thoughtless conveners, but also from long-standing problems in the professional “pipeline” that carries individuals to the top levels of the field. Inequities in hiring and promotion often reflect, and help perpetuate, the unconscious bias of a male-dominated field.

Tamara Cofman Wittes tells Think Tank Watch that the six think tanks studied were: Brookings, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Wilson Center, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Atlantic Council.

Here is what the two authors are proposing to address this issue:
First, we can commit to consistently drawing attention to the issue – all of us, whatever our level or role in the policy and academic community. Male scholars who are troubled by the ongoing imbalance in our field can take one concrete step that would have faster and more notable impact than any other: They can join colleagues, like the Center for Global Development’s Owen Barder and Foreign Policy’s David Rothkopf, in a pledge not to appear on programs that do not include any women, at least not without a clear, satisfying and publicly articulated explanation from the organizers.
Another way we can all help to increase women’s participation in policy discussions and public panels is to highlight women experts, easing the path for busy organizers building media programs or events. Foreign Policy Interrupted, the brainchild of the journalists Lauren Bohn and Elmira Bayrasli, puts out a weekly newsletter of foreign policy writing by women. Women in International Security, founded by a group of women pioneers in national security in 1987, boasts a network of some 7,000 members and a robust Washington chapter including luminaries like Michèle Flournoy, former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. After Foreign Policy’s 2012 Twitterati list was trashed for ignoring women, Twitter users crowdsourced a list of women Twitterati on a wide array of foreign policy topics (100 “FPwomerati;” a larger list is available on request). Tamara Cofman Wittes is building a searchable database of female foreign policy experts that will be publicly available, so that “I couldn’t think of any women to invite” becomes a practical impossibility.

So, are think tank panels generally biased towards the viewpoint of men?  Send your thoughts to Think Tank Watch.

Also, here is a previous Think Tank Watch post about the male-female divide at think tanks, which includes other links to similar pieces.  And here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about a 2014 event on advancing women in the think tank sector.

Think Tank Watch predicts many more women will be on think tank panels in 2015 and beyond.

By the way, is there also a lack of mid-level experts at think tanks?

Updated: Here is the list of leading think tanks' record on woman's inclusion on think tank panels.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Lobbying Shifts Sharply to Think Tank Land

The culture of influence-peddling is changing rapidly, and more people are trying to influence policy through think tanks rather than directly through Congress.

A new piece in Time Magazine written by Erin Quinn and Chris Young of Center for Public Integrity says that Washington influencers are spending more on advertising and PR than lobbying.  Here is more:
The steady rise in public relations worldwide spending has been accompanied by an overall drop in lobbying spending, beyond the trade group sector.
Lobbying expenditures peaked in 2010, when special interests spent $3.6 billion on lobbying federal lawmakers. Since then, they have declined steadily, falling to $3.2 billion in 2013, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The total number of registered lobbyists has also dropped.
Some say the change indicates a shift toward so-called “soft lobbying,” a strategy that enables industry groups and unions to influence public policy not only with public relations, but through think tanks, nonprofit organizations and grassroots groups that aren’t subject to federal disclosure rules.

The article goes on to note one example where American Petroleum Institute (API) hired PR firm Edelman to help with its so-called "Vote4Energy" campaign, and they worked together to organize a panel discussion targeting "key influencers" such as think tank scholars.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Heritage Foundation Issues Major New Policy Book, Changes Tone

The conservative think tank Heritage Foundation has just released a major new policy book titled "Opportunity for All, Favoritism for None."

The nearly 200-page book has 12 chapters on: jobs, energy, k-12 education, college/university, healthcare, economy, bailouts, welfare reform, spending, taxes, society, and national security.

Town Hall notes that the book calls for Republicans to embrace "conservative populism" rather than "donorism."

The book was released during the Heritage Action Conservative Policy Conference taking place from January 12-13.  The agenda of that conference, which includes speeches from more than 20 lawmakers, can be found here.  And Heritage's legislative preview for the summit can be found here.

Attendees at the conference reportedly were not too excited about Mitt Romney running for president in 2016.

National Journal says that the Heritage Foundation isn't moderating its principles but is focusing more on reform over opposition in 2015.  Here is more:
Heritage Action for America spent the past two years as an obstructionist force within the Republican Party, hoping to pull the party to the right through a string of confrontations. But now, with Republicans running Congress, the group is changing its strategy toward a policy push, advocating an economic agenda aimed at appealing to middle-class voters. The rationale behind the shift comes from an understanding that constructive policy ideas sell better than instinctive opposition—even if Heritage Action's favored prescriptions are more conservative than what many party officials support.

The article questions whether the shift in tone for the think tank is more about rebranding its image, or a substantive shift.

In related Heritage Foundation news, Think Tank Watch recently reported that the think tank has received a major new gift.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Sen. Jay Rockefeller Joins Top Foreign Affairs Think Tank

Former Sen. Jay Rockefeller (R-WV) will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) this month as a Distinguished Fellow.  Rockefeller's portfolio will include Japan, East Asia, and cybersecurity, and he will remain in CFR's Washington, DC office.

Rockefeller, the former Chairman of the US Select Committee on Intelligence, has been a member of CFR since 1978.

CFR was previously chaired by David Rockefeller (Jay's uncle), and CFR's David Rockefeller Studies Program (which is considered CFR's "think tank") is home to more than 70 full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners.

The Rockefeller Foundation was involved in the early financing of CFR.

In 2005 CFR held a special symposium in honor of David Rockefeller's 90th birthday.  And here is what Inside Philanthropy recently had to say about David Rockefeller and his funding.

Here is what The Hill has to say about the CFR-Rockefeller announcement.

Each year a number of former lawmakers join think tanks, and the trends seems to have picked up over the past few years as think tanks compete to land "big names" at their policy shops.

Here is a previous list from Think Tank Watch on members of Congress who have joined think tanks (or are affiliated with think tanks).  The list has been updated periodically and will be updated in the near future (it is by no means complete).

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Think Tank Quickies (#158)

  • The top Brookings infographics of 2014.
  • Chinese think tank launches recruitment after major reform.
  • "Research for rent and solutions for sale" at think tanks, via Scott Beauchamp.
  • Arvind Panagariya to chair Indian government think tank; wide think tank talent hunt.
  • Comic strip Frank and Ernest on the fate of think tanks in a zombie acopalpyse (h/t Tevi Troy).
  • New think tank on Japan-US diplomacy gives Okinawa a voice.
  • CFR's Joshua Kurlantzick on why air disasters keep on happening in and around Indonesia.
  • Anthony Weiss supporters touting his authorship of liberal think tank economic plan.
  • Heritage Foundation gets Laffer Curve wrong?
  • Think tank proposes shake-up of Taiwan defense.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

New House Rules Go After Think Tank Funding

The movement to make think tank funding more transparent scored a big win today as the new US House rules will require think tank scholars testifying before Congress to disclose contracts or payments from foreign governments.

The disclosure requirement covers payments received during the current calendar year or either of the two previous calendar years by the witness (i.e., a think tank expert) or by an entity represented by the witness (i.e., a think tank).

The disclosure must include the amount that the think tank or think tanker has received from that foreign source.

The new rules can be found here (h/t Eric Lipton of New York Times).

The issue of think tank funding policies became a huge issue after last year's New York Times investigative report titled "Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks."

After that piece was published, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) drafted a proposal requiring think tank scholars testifying before Congress to disclose foreign government support.

Think Tank Watch predicts that many think tanks scholars who receive foreign government funding will refuse invitations to testify before Congress, as many to not want to disclose such information.

Much more coming soon...

2 Inches of Snow Shuts Down Think Tank Row

Two inches of snow in Washington, DC has brought think tank row to its knees, shutting down many of the powerful think tanks along Massachusetts Avenue.

The snow has caused power outages in the Dupont Circle area, leaving many think tanks without power.  For example, the Brookings Institution is closed today, and its email server had been down as of early this morning.  Here is a sign in front of Brookings announcing the closure.

Prolific think tanker Justin Wolfers jokes that the closings will lead "American democracy to grind to a halt."  And reporter Laura Rozen says that the world will have to "muddle through without" the assistance of most of Washington's think tanks for a bit...

Monday, January 5, 2015

Heritage Foundation Gets Major Gift for New Office Building

The Heritage Foundation recently said that it has received an "eight-digit" gift (i.e., $10+ million) from a retired radiologist and several members of her family.  Here is more:
Retired Austin, Texas, radiologist Patrice K. Richardson, M.D., and several members of her family will honor her late father, E.W. “Rich” Richardson, with an eight-figure gift to The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC, the prominent think tank announced today.
The gift will be used to advance the missions of both Heritage and its sister organization, Heritage Action for America.
The gift also will help finance the purchase and renovation of a new office building and conference center – to be named the E.W. Richardson American Leadership Building – in the 200 block of Massachusetts Ave., NE, on Capitol Hill, where The Heritage Foundation has had its headquarters since the 1980s. 
A long-time supporter of The Heritage Foundation, Dr. Richardson previously had established a Heritage fellowship in her father’s honor. James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Heritage's vice president of foreign and defense policy studies, serves as the E.W. Richardson Fellow.

It is still unclear exactly how much will be given to the conservative think tank, and it may break Heritage Foundation's record donation receipt of $26 million in 2013 from the family of the late Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis.

2015 UPenn Think Tank Rankings to be Announced Jan. 22

The University of Pennsylvania's annual think tank rankings will be announced on January 22, 2015.  The main launch events will take place in Washington, DC and New York, with a pre-launch event taking place in Philadelphia.

There will also be launches in more than 55 cities around the world.

The UPenn think tank report is considered the most comprehensive think tanks ranking in the world, but it has many flaws and many detractors. 

Here is a link to the 2013 report, which was released in early 2014, as well as a "cheat sheet" put together by Think Tank Watch.