Thursday, January 28, 2016

Meet the US's Top 25 Think Tanks in 2016

The following is from the just-released University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings:
  1. Brookings Institution
  2. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
  3. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  4. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
  5. Wilson Center
  6. Cato Institute 
  7. RAND Corporation
  8. Heritage Foundation
  9. Center for American Progress (CAP)
  10. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
  11. Pew Research Center
  12. American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
  13. Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
  14. Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
  15. World Resources Institute (WRI)
  16. Atlantic Council
  17. Urban Institute
  18. James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
  19. Hoover Institution
  20. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
  21. Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
  22. US Institute of Peace (USIP)
  23. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBBP)
  24. Stimson Center
  25. Center for International Development (CID) 

The 2016 think tank rankings "cheat sheet" can be found here.

Meet the Top 25 Think Tanks in the World in 2016

The following rankings are from the University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings which have just been released.
  1. Brookings
  2. Chatham House
  3. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
  4. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  5. Bruegel
  6. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
  7. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
  8. RAND Corporation
  9. Wilson Center
  10. Amnesty International
  11. Cato Institute
  12. Heritage Foundation
  13. Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV)
  14. Transparency International (TI)
  15. Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA)
  16. French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)
  17. Fraser Institute
  18. German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
  19. Center for American Progress (CAP)
  20. Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
  21. Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
  22. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
  23. Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
  24. Carnegie Moscow Russia
  25. Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) 

Here is Think Tank Watch's "cheat sheet" for the 2016 think tank rankings.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

2016 Think Tank Rankings - Cheat Sheet

The University of Pennsylvania has just released its annual think tank rankings list - the 9th version of its extensive rankings of the world's think tanks.  As always, it is no surprise that Brookings remains the world's #1 think tank.

Following are the top think tanks in many of the major categories.

Top Think Tanks Worldwide (US & 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. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
  7. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
  8. RAND Corporation
  9. Wilson Center
  10. Amnesty International

Top Think Tanks in the United States:
  1. Brookings
  2. CEIP
  3. CSIS
  4. CFR
  5. Wilson Center
  6. Cato Institute
  7. RAND Corporation
  8. Heritage Foundation
  9. Center for American Progress (CAP)
  10. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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. Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
  4. Botswana Institute for Development Analysis (BIDPA)
  5. African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)

Top Think Tanks in Mexico and Canada:
  1. Fraser Institute
  2. Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales (COMEX)
  3. Fundar, Centro de Analisis e Investigacion
  4. C.D. Howe Institute
  5. Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)

Top Think Tanks in Central and South America:
  1. Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV)
  2. Comision Economica para America Latina (CEPAL)
  3. Fundacion para la Educacion Superior y el Sesarrollo
  4. Centro Brasileiro de Relacoes Internacionais (CEBRI)
  5. Consejo Argentino 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. Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD)
  4. Armat Center for the Development of Democracy and Civil Society
  5. Caucasus Research Resource Center

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

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

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

Top Think Tanks in Western Europe:
  1. Chatham House
  2. Bruegel
  3. French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)
  4. Amnesty International
  5. Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Top Think Tanks in 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. Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)
  5. Al Jazeera Centre for Studies (AJCS) 

Top Defense and National Security Think Tanks:
  1. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  2. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
  3. RAND Corporation
  4. Brookings
  5. Chatham House

Top Domestic Economic Policy Think Tanks:
  1. Brookings
  2. NBER
  3. Adam Smith Institute (ASI)
  4. Cato Institute
  5. Peterson Institute for International Economics

Top International Economics Think Tanks:
  1. Peterson Institute for International Economics
  2. Bruegel
  3. Brookings
  4. NBER
  5. Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)

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

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

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

Top Foreign Policy and International Affairs Think Tanks:
  1. Chatham House
  2. Brookings
  3. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
  4. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
  5. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 

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

Top Global Health Policy Think Tanks:
  1. Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research
  2. Bloomberg School of Public Health Research Centers
  3. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  4. Brookings
  5. RAND Corporation

Top International Development Think Tanks:
  1. Brookings
  2. Chatham House
  3. Korea Development Institute (KDI)
  4. Wilson Center
  5. Center for International Development (CID)

Top Science and Technology Think Tanks:
  1. Max Planck Institutes
  2. Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)
  3. Center for Development Research (ZEF)
  4. Battelle Memorial Institute
  5. Institute for Future Engineering (IFENG)

Top Social Policy Think Tanks:
  1. Urban Institute
  2. Brookings
  3. Fraser Institute
  4. Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE)
  5. RAND Corporation

Best For-Profit Think Tanks:
  1. McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)
  2. Deutsche Bank Research
  3. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
  4. Oxford Analytica
  5. Nomura Research Institute (NRI) 

Best Government-Affiliated Think Tanks:
  1. Development Research Group, World Bank
  2. Asian Development Bank Institute
  3. Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
  4. Royal United Services Institute
  5. World Bank Institute

Best University-Affiliated Think Tanks:
  1. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
  2. Center for International Development (CID)
  3. IDEAS/Public Policy Group
  4. James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
  5. Institute of Development Studies (IDS)

Think Tanks With Outstanding Policy-Oriented Research Programs:
  1. Chatham House
  2. Brookings
  3. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  4. RAND Corporation
  5. Bruegel

Think Tanks With Most Significant Impact on Public Policy:
  1. Brookings
  2. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  3. Council on Foreign Relations
  4. Chatham House
  5. Amnesty International

Think Tanks With the Best Use of Media (Print or Electronic):
  1. Center for Strategic and International Studies
  2. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  3. Brookings
  4. Council on Foreign Relations
  5. Chatham House

Think Tanks to Watch:
  1. Chicago Council on Global Affairs
  2. Association for International Affairs (AMO)
  3. Institute for International Policy Studies (ISPI)
  4. Wilson Center
  5. Atlantic Council

Here is last year's cheat sheet compiled by Think Tank Watch.

Remember, you may want to be careful about reading too much into these rankings, which have numerous flaws and biases.

Paul Light: Think Tanks Don't Think About Policy Implementation

In a recent interview with Federal News Radio, Paul Light, a professor at New York University (NYU) and founding principal investigator of the Global Center for Public Service, has some tough words for think tanks:
What policymakers to on Capitol Hill, and in academia, and think tanks is that they generate these complicated policies and assume that you can just chuck the policy over to the bureaucracy and it will be implemented.  That is just not true.
Some of these policymakers have a certain arrogance as they are drafting legislation.  They don't know much about implementation.  They don't think for a second about implementation.
If you run your finger down the phone books of think tanks around Washington you will rarely find anybody on the team on the scholars list who specializes in implementation.  It's just a non-starter.  It's so boring for most people.  They don't think about it because it's not what turns their boards on and it's not what raises money.

Dr. Light is not speaking out of thin air.  He was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Founding Director of the think tank's Center for Public Service.  He was also Vice President and Director of the think tank's Governmental Studies Program.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Best Description of Political Leanings in a Think Tank Paper

Think tankers often describe their politics leanings as conservative, or liberal, or moderate.  Those are way too safe and boring.

In a Cato Unbound essay, Eliezer Yudkowsky, co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, describes his politics leanings in a much more precise way:
When people ask me about my politics these days, I sometimes describe myself as “a very small-‘l’ libertarian.” I am—like many libertarians, in my admittedly skewed Silicon Valley experience—just another pot-decriminalizing, prostitution-supporting, computer-programming, science-fiction-reading, Bayesian-statistics-promoting, mainstream-economics-respecting, sex-positive, money-positive, polyamorous atheistic transhumanist government-distrusting minarchist.

Cato Unbound is the monthly only magazine and discussion forum of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute.  Each month is presents a big-picture topic by an important thinker.  Its current editor is Jason Kuznicki.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Now Unionized: Center for American Progress

The liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), which has deep ties to Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration, has unionized with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE).

Here is more from Huffington Post:
Workers at the influential liberal think tank unionized with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the union told The Huffington Post. Leadership at CAP voluntarily recognized the staffers' request, enabling them to avoid a secret-ballot election. Management will now bargain with the union.
"It reflects our progressive values," Alyssa Peterson, a CAP staffer who works on poverty issues, said of the decision to unionize. "We saw it as a natural extension of our institutional support for collective bargaining."
The move comes just four months after the staff of ThinkProgress, CAP's popular, left-leaning news site, announced that they were unionizing. That campaign was part of a wave of six successful union drives at digital media outlets over the past year, including The Huffington Post. 
CAP staffers had talked for years about organizing into a union, though discussions began in earnest in May, according to Peterson.

Neera Tanden, CAP's current president, reportedly said that the think tank's management remained neutral about the decision, and Huffington Post notes it would have been scandalous if pro-union CAP had not.

IFPTE already represents other think tanks such as the union-backed Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

Record Snow Grinds Think Tank Land to a Halt

Record snow which has blanketed Washington, DC, the home of the densest concentration of think tanks in the world, has forced the closing of nearly all of the 396+ think tanks in the city.

The Brookings Institution said that its Washington office is closed on January 25 due to the snow, and events scheduled for the day are postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which is also closed, cancelled today's event on Russia.  Heritage Foundation cancelled its event on Margaret Thatcher.  Center for American Progress (CAP) and Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) are also among the numerous think tanks that had to cancel events.

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar Gus Hurwitz took the opportunity to write about airlines, markets, and "Snowmageddalypse 2016."

Due to the large amount of snow, think tanks could also be closed on Tuesday and possibly beyond that.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Think Tank Quickies (#204)

  • Spiritual leader Marc Gafni: "Thank God I run my own think tank, otherwise I'd never get a job."
  • Think tanker Peter Singer wants this obituary: "A wonk's wonk...A wonk so wonky he once conducted a study of think tanks themselves."
  • Meet the 300+ corporations sponsoring the 7 think tanks dominating the TTIP trade debate.
  • Too many think tanks are just "kool-aid fueled group think."
  • How Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is turning the House into an election year think tank.
  • Bruegel to host panel discussion on why think tanks matter during launch of UPenn's 2015 think tank index.
  • Heritage Foundation welcomes Beverly Hallberg, President of District Media Group, as Visiting Fellow in Communications. 
  • CFR brings on new scholars for its David Rockefeller Studies Program: Reuben Brigety, Robert Litan, and Matthew Taylor; economist Brad Setser returns to CFR.
  • Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" wins 2015 CFR Arthur Ross Book Award.
  • CFR web hub ("The Candidates and the World") offers resources on 2016 presidential candidates' views on foreign policy.
  • Victoria Ransom and David Burke join Carnegie Endowment Board.
  • Leaders of Center for a New American Security (CNAS), US Institute of Peace (USIP), and Carnegie Endowment (CEIP), launch Study Group on Fragility.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Carnegie India to Launch in April 2016

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) announced today the launch of Carnegie India, a branch of the think tank which will open in New Delhi.  The new think tank, which will open in April 2016, will be Carnegie's sixth international center.  CEIP is headquartered in Washington, DC and has branches in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels, and Moscow.

C. Raja Mohan, a Nonresident Senior Associate at Carnegie since 2012, will serve as the founding director of Carnegie India.  Shivnath Thukral, former group president of corporate branding and strategic initiatives at Essar, will serve as Carnegie India's Managing Director.

Carnegie India has been supported by Carnegie India's Founders Committee, a group of Indian and international donors co-chaired by former cabinet secretary and Indian ambassador to the US, Naresh Chandra, and former US Ambassador to India, Frank Wisner.

Others on Carnegie India's Founders Committee include:  Carnegie Corporation of America, Shobhana Bhartia/HT Media, C.K. Birla, General Electric, Gilead Sciences, Chip & Cheryl Kaye/Warburg Pincus Foundation, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sunil Mittal, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Saroj Poddar, G.M. Rao, Tata Sons Ltd., and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

Carnegie is not the first major US think tank to open a branch in India.  Several years ago, the Brookings Institution opened a think tank in New Delhi, the same city where Carnegie's new think tank will be located.

India only has 192 think tanks according to the latest University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.  With a population of 1.25 billion, that means India has one think tank for every 6.5 million people.  As a comparison, the US, with 1,830 think tanks and a population of around 320 million people, has one think tank for every 175,000 people.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Top 10 Perks of Being a Nonresident Senior Fellow at a Think Tank

This is a 2013 piece from Daniel Drezner that Think Tank Watch just came across.  At that time, Drezner had just become a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Managing Global Order project at the Brookings Institution.  [The project became the Project on International Order and Strategy (IOS) in February 2014, perhaps because the original name was too much of a target for conspiracy theorists.]

Here is the list:

10) Now all of my talks can be shorter. Before any academic or policy talk, a speaker usually receives an introduction in which the convenor reads the person’s bio. If the speaker has lots of awards, affiliations, and publications, then this process can take a while, cutting into the speaker’s allotted time. Secretly, all speakers want this, cause it means they don’t have to remble on as long. Adding the Brookings affiliation will cut my talks by at least thirty seconds.
9) I’m now one affiliation away from the PACT. A key plot device in 30 Rock was Tracy Morgan’s quest for the EGOT — Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar awards. Foreign policy wonks have a similar quest, except it operates by affiliations: Press, Academia, Consulting, and Think Tankery. Adding my nonresident senior fellow appellation to being a Fletcher professor and a contributing editor here at FP, I now have a PAT. The only thing missing is the for-profit consulting gig. I’m looking in your direction, Stonebridge Group and/or McKinsey!!
8) 50,000 frequent flyer miles with an airline of my choice. This sounds like a great perk, but really, it’s just so that I can be conversant in frequent flyer-speak when bumping into other nonresident senior fellows at conferences:
ME: So did you get upgraded on this flight?
OTHER WONK: Oh, yeah, but that’s because I’m Super Premium status. You?
ME: No, and I was willing to use miles too!!
OTHER WONK: Oh, no, never use your own miles!! See, what you should do it… [long disquisition about the art of frequent flyer mile management.]
You get the idea. 
7) Officially one of the old boys now. The "senior" is a tipoff — I can no longer declare "Young Turk" status. Instead, I’m clearly part of an old boy network of some kind or another. Which will, inevitably, lead to attacks from Glenn Greenwald. 
6) Attract a much better class of groupies. Oh, sure, as a full professor I get the entreaty from a student willing to do just about anything to get an RAship/grad school admission/job. DC, however, attacts a much more desperate and stylish set of aspirants. Indeed, within 24 hours of becoming a nonresident senior fellow, my LinkedIn profile was beseiged with requests ranging from "I’m just dying to polish your memos" to "I feel like I’m the only research assistant who gets you — I mean, really gets you!!" 
5) One free black helicopter ride. I have every confidence that the sovereigntists in the crowd are already freaked out by the "Managing Global Order" moniker. AS YOU SHOULD BE!!! Who do you think supplies the black helicopetrs to the United Nations? Before we do, however, a nonresident fellow can pick where in the country the brand-spanking new black helicopter can buzz, just to freak out some locals. I, for one, am looking forward to a quick, below-the-radar trip through the Texas panhandle. 
4) Playing the Lincoln card.  All nonresident senior fellows run into bureaucratic impediments at some point or another.  Once a year, I can pull the Lincoln card out of my wallet, and utter the following: "I am a nonresident senior fellow, clothed in IMMENSE POWER!  You will procure me these PowerPoint slides." 
3) Preferential treatment at the Old Ebbitt Grill.  For years, I used to make reservations at this venerable DC establishment and still find myself cooling my heels and not impressing my date as more distinguished Beltway denizens would just waltz on in.  Not anymore!!  Now I just flash your "Nonresident Senior Fellow" gold card to the maitre d’hotel and — KABLAMM!! — my date and I are enjoying the finest champagnes in the land.  This is a much more civilized way of exerting power than the more old-fashioned method in which — as I understand it — the men simply unzipped their flies and compared penis sizes. 
2) At least ten more seconds of air time on CNN. Cable news nets will let senior nonresident fellows blather on for at least two more sentences before interrupting duing an interview. 
1) "Nonresident Casual Fridays." One Friday, every other month, the nonresident fellows show up at the Brookings Institution very early, camp ourselves in the offices of the resident fellows, and scare the bejeezus out of them when they walk in. Alternatively, we prank call the senior resident fellows, pretending to be a White House flack asking for permission to vet them for a prominent subcabinet position.

He notes that being a Nonresident Senior Fellow is "almost as cool" as being a full professor.  Considering that nonresident fellows and nonresident senior fellows at think tanks are almost never paid, we would think so.

And although unpaid, it doesn't mean that nonresident fellows can't be fired.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Saudi Arabia's Think Tank Allies Jump to Its Defense

Here is more from The Intercept:
Saudi Arabia’s well-funded public relations apparatus moved quickly after Saturday’s explosive execution of Shiite political dissident Nimr al-Nimr to shape how the news is covered in the United States.
A Politico article about the rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran by Nahal Toosi...quoted three sources: the State Department, which provided a muted response to the executions; the Saudi government; and Fahad Nazer, identified as a “political analyst with JTG Inc.” Nazer defended the executions, saying that they served as a “message … aimed at Saudi Arabia’s own militants regardless of their sect.”
What Politico did not reveal was that Nazer is himself a former political analyst at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a think tank formed last year that discloses that it is fully funded by the Saudi Embassy and the United Arab Emirates.
An editorial published by the Wall Street Journal approvingly quoted Joseph Braude of the Foreign Policy Research Institute claiming that Nimr was a violent extremist who advocated a “military option” against Saudi Arabia. But as journalists and editors from the Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, the BBC, and other prominent outlets have reported, Nimr advocated nonviolence and encouraged his followers to protest peacefully. Braude did not provide any evidence for his claims beyond anonymous “Saudi sources.”
Braude is a contributor to several Saudi-owned media outlets, including Al Arabiya and Al Majalla, a magazine owned by a member of the Saudi royal family. Neither of these affiliations were disclosed in the Wall Street Journal editorial. (Braude was also convicted in 2004 of attempting to smuggle 4,000-year-old artifacts looted from the Iraqi National Museum after the fall of Baghdad into the United States.)

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece on the above-mentioned Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW), and here is a biography of Fahad Nazer.  Here is a biography of the above-mentioned Joseph Braude, a Senior Fellow at the Philadelphia-based think tank Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Matt Ridley's New Book Bashed for Overreliance on Think Tanker

In a new review of Matt Ridley's new book "The Evolution of Everything," Jim Tankersley, the economic policy correspondent for The Washington Post, takes a swipe at Ridley for being overly reliant on the work of a think tank expert.  Here is more:
Like a cable-news junkie, he skips past volumes of rigorous scholarship and comes to rest on almost anything that supports his convictions.
This is particularly true in Ridley’s economics chapters. His theory of the 2008 financial crisis — that it was caused mainly by federal government policy — draws largely on the work of one conservative economist, Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute, whose theories are, to put it mildly, not widely shared in the field.

Peter Wallison, who was in the Ronald Reagan Administration, is the Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  All of his work can be found here.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Vox to Launch New Think Tank Section

Vox.com is looking to hire a think tank editor as it plans to launch "Vox Think Tank," a new section that aims to highlight reports and ideas from think tankers and academics.

Here is more from a Vox Media job announcement:
Vox.com is a user’s guide to the news, helping readers make sense of everything from the 2016 presidential campaign to the loopholes in corporate tax policy to NASA's Pluto mission. We want to create the single best resource for news consumers anywhere.
We are on the hunt for an editor to launch and run Vox Think Tank, a new section that will bring in outside voices to explain politics and policy through insightful research, ideas, and data. It will showcase academics, scholars, and practitioners whose knowledge and expertise should be central to coverage of politics and policy — and the editor will work with those contributors to make sure their pieces are written and framed so they can find a mass audience online.
This is an exciting opportunity for an aggressive editor who is passionate about the ideas that animate and explain politics and policy. The editor will shape the vision and tone for this project and own its success. The ideal candidate is familiar with poli-sci and think tank worlds and is eager to bring the smartest work to a wide audience.
Responsibilities:
—Launch, run, and shape new section.
—Convince top academics and thinkers to contribute.
—Spot smart ideas in academic and think tank circles and bring them to a wide audience.
—Work with contributors who may not be accustomed to writing for a general audience. This may require aggressive edits.
—Experiment with different forms of content from graphics to text explainers to lists.
—Manage freelance budget.

Requirements:
—A demonstrable familiarity with the think tank/poli-sci worlds.
—Deep interest in politics, policy, and political science.
—Experience editing stories that pop on the internet.
—Headline-writing magic.
—At least three years of experience writing and editing.

Based on the job description, it appears that the new section will mirror Wall Street Journal's "Think Tank," a feature on WSJ.com started in 2014 that draws news and analysis from outside contributors across the political spectrum.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Think Tank Quickies (#203)

  • PR firm FitzGibbon Media, which had Center for American Progress (CAP) as a client, closes after founder is accused of sex assault.
  • Think tanks weigh in on Donald Trump's tax plan.
  • Michael Massig: Think tank philanthropy and the 1 percenters.
  • Little funding available for new Russia positions at think tanks.
  • Outgoing Chief of Staff to Sen. Thom Tillis (John Mashburn) worked for two conservative think tanks.
  • Ihor Zozak advises think tanks around the world on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
  • Book: How Think Tanks Shape Social Development Policies (China edition). 
  • How do we measure success among think tank economists?
  • Scientific American lists "most popular science studies of the year," determined in part by references from think tanks.
  • Bloomberg: At least 9 US think tanks released reports endorsing crude oil exports.