Korean President to Speak at CSIS

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is once again showing its deep connections to Asian governments.

On October 15, Korean President Park Geun-hye will be speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Julie Bishop, the Foreign Minister of Australia, just gave a speech at CSIS today.

Over the years, CSIS has hosted a variety of major Asian leaders at its think tank, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  In August, Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's Secretary General of the Communist Party, also gave a speech at CSIS.

Korea, Japan, and Vietnam are among the foreign governments that donate to CSIS.

CSIS was ranked as the world's fourth best think tank in the world by the latest University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.  It was also ranked as the US's third best think tank (after Brookings and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace).  Moreover, it was rated as the world's top defense and national security think tank.

Update: A variety of scholars from think tanks such as CSIS, Brookings, and Heritage, have attended an October 14 Korean-American Friendship Night with Ms. Park

Think Tank Quickies (#194)

• Russian hacks peppering think tanks.
• Readers react to thinking on think tanks series in the Washington Post.
• James McGann: Think tanks need to innovate or die.
• Jane Harman in WPost: Are think tanks too partisan?
• Ellen Laipson of Stimson: Why our demand for instant results hurts think tanks.
• Jessica Matthews of CEIP: Why think tanks should embrace "new media."
• USTR official Wendy Cutler becomes VP of Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI).
• Newt Gingrich a "political consultant for conservative think tanks."
• Joe Lieberman working on projects related to foreign policy and defense for such conservative think tanks as AEI and Hudson.
• Jane Smiley's new book "Golden Age" tells all about think tanks.
• Jason Stahl (Salon) on Elizabeth Warren: Why her war with a corporate-friendly think tank matters.
• How USAID's secret think tank funding hurts the poor; and most Australian think tanks keep their funding secret, according to new data.

Australia Plan to Transform Remote Regions Comes From Think Tank

Australia has a bold new plan to develop its northern regions over the next 20 years, and that plan comes from a think tank.  Here is more, from the Economist:

On June 18th Mr Abbott’s government published a white paper outlining plans for developing northern Australia over the next 20 years. Such attention is long overdue.

The plan drew on proposals by the Institute of Public Affairs, a libertarian think-tank. The institute has promoted its ideas in tandem with a group in Western Australia founded by Gina Rinehart, whose iron-ore wealth from the Pilbara region, in that state’s north, has made her Australia’s richest person. Both outfits want northern Australia to become a hub for Asian investment. To encourage this, they have pressed the government to make the region a “special economic zone”. They want it to have lower business and income taxes than the rest of Australia.

Australia's Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) was founded in 1943.  Here are some of the think tank's papers on developing northern Australia.

This is the latest example of how think tanks impact public policy around the globe, in nearly every country (and region) in the world.

According to the University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings, Australia has 29 think tanks.