Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program

The growth of public policy research organizations over the last two decades has been nothing less than explosive. Not only have these organizations increased in number, but the scope and impact of their work has expanded dramatically. Still, the potential of think tanks to support and sustain democratic governments and civil societies around the world is far from exhausted. The challenge for the new millennium is to harness the vast reservoir of knowledge, information and associational energy that exist in public policy research organizations so that it can support self-sustaining economic, social and political progress in every region of the world.

Over the last six years the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program has laid the foundation for a global initiative that will help bridge the gap between knowledge and policy in critical policy areas such as international peace and security, globalization and governance, international economics, environment, information and society, poverty alleviation and health. This international collaborative effort is designed to establish regional and international networks of policy institutes and communities that will improve policy making and strengthen democratic institutions and civil societies around the world. The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program has assembled some of the leading scholars and practitioners from think tanks and universities around the world to collaborate on this program.


Program Objectives

• Develop strategies that will improve the performance and effectiveness of think tanks in the creation, dissemination and utilization of policy-relevant proposals and will engage policy makers and civil society representatives in the policy making process.
• Create a virtual global think tank that will foster collaboration, information sharing and the transfer of innovative policies and proposals from one institution or policy community to another.
• Promote a constructive dialogue and collaborative research and analysis on policy issues through the creation of global issue networks that build on existing local and regional networks wherever possible.
• Identify, test and disseminate strategies and technologies that will facilitate collaborative research and information sharing among public policy research organizations and other policy and knowledge based institutions around the world.
• Promote an on-going interdisciplinary global dialogue among think tanks, policy makers and civil society representatives that will explore the critical role think tanks play in civil societies and how these institutions can be sustained over time.
• Collect data and conduct research on think tanks and policy communities around the world and then disseminate the findings as widely as possible.Develop and implement strategies that will increase the capacity of think tanks in developing and transitional countries such as the access to and utilization of the internet, resource development and institutional management so that they can participate as equal partners in this global initiative.

Foreign Policy
Research Institute
1528 Walnut St, Ste 610
Philadelphia, PA 19102
USA
Tel: 0012157323774
Fax: 0012157324401
fpri@fpri.org