Thinking about "Think Tanks"

 Thinking about "Think Tanks"

 by Dave & Nita Anand

"Think Tanks" mostly employ critical thinking rather than creative thinking when conducting research to provide advisory services for shaping public policy in areas such as — political strategy, social policy, economic/scientific/technology issues, military, business and industrial policies. 

Critical thinking, also described as "thinking about thinking," is a thought process that questions assumptions, a way to analyze and assess whether a claim is true, false, sometimes true, or partly true. It uses reasoning and logic, including — cause/effect, classification, comparison/analogies/alternatives, patterning, sequencing, forecasting, planning, hypothesizing, etc., to reach a conclusion. In the Western world, critical thinking is rooted in the Socratic methods of Ancient Greece, and in the East, it is attributed to Buddhist "Kalama Sutta (the discipline of seeking truth, wisdom and knowledge whether it is religious or not)" and "Abhidharma (higher teaching or meta-teaching)."

On the other hand, we come up with a new idea(s) or product(s) when employing creative thinking. It does not imply an ability to create out of nothing — only God can do that. Brainstorming is one type of creative thinking in which prior ideas of someone else are combined with your own for creating a refined, more powerful idea or product. Creative thinking involves the skills of — originality, associative thinking, fluency, flexibility, imagery/visualization, metaphorical thinking, modification, and the like. 

The right brain is associated with creative thinking, while critical thinking is viewed as the left-brain process; both are important for the world. For example in problem or issue solving activity, we must — analyze the problem/issue on hand (critical thinking); come up with possible solutions (creative); choose and implement the best solution (not a think tank function, more creative in nature); and finally assess the effectiveness of the solution put in place (critiquing). Practically speaking — both types of thinking take place in tandem and are not mutually exclusive of each other.

Originally, the term "think tank" connoted a room full of strategists discussing war planning to develop military advice. These days think tanks engage in just about everything of concern for the world-at-large, including areas of: economics, politics, foreign policy, health, education, national security, global warming and environment, energy, immigration, social welfare, government and international institutions, private sector, legal and judicial, the civil society, and so on.

There are more than 6,300 think tanks in the world today that are spread over 169 countries. More than 1,815 think tanks exist in the United States with 393 located in the Washington, D.C., area alone. Next in line with 425 think tanks is China, followed by India (292), The United Kingdom (286), Germany (194), France (176), Argentina (137), Russia (112), Japan (103), Canada (97), Italy (90), South Africa (85), Brazil (82), Israel (54), and South Korea (35). 

Particularly in America think tanks have a political leaning. Conservative think tanks outnumber the liberal ones, as also, they have more funds to back them. By one estimate, think tanks promoting conservative agenda in the United States have received over $300 million in the past two years compared to just $80 million for those pushing leftwing ideas. These political leaning think tanks having rotating doors through which leaders and bureaucrats enter and exit constantly, are the extreme example of influence peddling in the United States.

Interestingly, most think tanks behave like universities, but with one difference. While academia do their research first and later make conclusions, think tank "senior fellows" do the opposite — they justify first and do research later. Perhaps we should label these as "Justify Tanks" instead of "Think Tanks."

Behind Brookings Institution in the University of Pennsylvania rankings are Chatham House of the United Kingdom, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Rand Corp., Amnesty International, Transparency International, International Crisis Group, with Peterson Institute for International Economics filling in the 10th spot. It is no surprise the American think tanks excel considering their long experience and extremely well-funded operations — they occupy 12 slots in the top 30 rankings of 2011.

Surprisingly, India has not placed a single think tank out of its 292 in the top 30. The only think tank of India that appears in top 50 is the Center for Civil Society, coming in at 34th position. Unfortunately, the center does not address the hot issues pertaining to foreign policy or national security. Considering India's global aspirations — it is pathetic that the more popular Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis, Center for Policy Research, Institute for Peace & Conflict Studies and Observer Research Foundation are not even in the top-50 global think tanks.

India has some explaining to do in this failure of its think tanks to rank high. Funding used to be an issue in the past decades, but it should not be so any more with the Gross Domestic Product growing between 7 percent and 9 percent for now more than 10 years. While the Indian institutions of higher learning compete globally in the areas of science, engineering, management and economics, mediocrity in political and social sciences is to be blamed for the failure of India's think tanks placing high in the global rankings.

We doubt if the leaders of India are aware of this fact or are thinking of doing anything about it.

Dave & Nita Anand (danand55@gmail.com) are a two-person think tank. Dave has written and published two books: "People Super Highway, the Mystique & Quest of Soul" and "The Verses."