U.S. expert says world think tanks grow in number and impact

The proliferation of think tanks across the globe has exponentially increased the potential for international communication, information gathering and new, creative policy analysis, says an American expert.

The number and overall impact of policy research organizations have been growing and spreading as there are over 6,480 think tanks operating in 169 countries, a great increase from ten years ago, James G. McGann, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and director of Think Tanks and Foreign Policy Program at the University of Pennsylvania, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

He said North America and Western Europe still dominate the scene with 57 percent of think tanks, but other regions are catching up. The Middle East and North Africa and Africa as a whole have seen the least activity, with a current level of five percent and eight percent of the world's think tanks, respectively.

He said the growth in numbers and influence of independent public policy research organizations --"think tanks" as they are commonly called -- has been noted by a growing number of scholars, donors and practitioners in the United States and abroad.

Regional and global intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and NATO have recently come to recognize the significant role think tanks play in the policymaking process, he added.

While more think tanks are appearing around the globe, individual think tanks themselves are simultaneously globalizing. Individual think tanks are executing global expansion strategies, in which a think tank establishes multiple physical operational centers, either in different domestic locations or in countries outside of its headquarters, said McGann.

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