The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) was a non-profit program at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, that operated from 1989 to 2021. TTCSP was originally established at the

Foreign Policy Research Institute The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is an American think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that conducts research on geopolitics, international relations, and international security in the various regions of the world as well ...

in 1989. The director was James McGann. The program conducted research on policy institutes around the world, and maintained a database of over 8,200

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

s from across the world.

Program history

The TTCSP was established at the

in 1989. It began with its focus on

think tanks A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

in the US. In the 1990s, the program became increasingly global as a result of the political and economic transformation that took place in Central and Eastern Europe.

R. Kent Weaver Kent Weaver is a professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. His focus is on a variety of fields in U.S. political science, including comparative social policy, comparative political ...

of the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

and James McGann of the Foreign Policy Research Institute were asked to help conceptualize what became the

Global Development Network The Global Development Network (GDN) is a worldwide network of research and policy institutes working to provide new perspectives to the development challenges of our time. A spin-off of the World Bank, GDN works to make policy-relevant research a ...

, a

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

Global Go To Think Tank Index

McGann and the Program published the annual ''Global Go To Think Tank Index''. As of 2010, the Index is based on a three-phase survey whose participants include politicians, scientists, think tank donors, and think tanks.Seiler, Christian, and Klaus Wohlrabe. "A critique of the 2009 global 'Go-to Think Tanks' ranking." ''CESifo DICE Report'' 8.2 (2010): 60. However, this method of the study and assessment of policy institutes has been criticized by researchers such as Enrique Mendizabal and Goran Buldioski, Director of the Think Tank Fund, assisted by the Open Society Institute. In 2018, this Index listed USA the country with the largest number of Think Tanks (1871), followed by India (509), China (507), UK (321), Argentina (227), Germany (218), Russia (215), France (203), Japan (128), Italy (114), Brazil (103), Canada (100), South Africa (93).(29 January 2019)
2018 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report

. Retrieved 30 October 2019.

References

External links

Think Tanks and Civil Societies Website

– provides information on the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), including scholar bios and works published.

– provides information on the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, including history and background, program goals, research priorities, and publications.

– a biography of James McGann, Director of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program.

– a biography of R. Kent Weaver, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution

– provides information on the Global Development Network, including its mission, history, research priorities, and publications.
International Relations Program at the University of Pennsylvania
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Think Tanks And Civil Societies Program (Ttcsp) Think tanks based in the United States University of Pennsylvania

Program history

Global Go To Think Tank Index

See also

References

External links