The Scientific Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Information Age. Historians love to periodize history around changing ideas and technology. If we want to periodize, there are arguably many different “revolutions” and “ages” going on at any one time. For instance, right this very moment could be described as the “cloud computing era,” the “large language model era,” the “electric and hybrid vehicle age,” or any of a number of other descriptors against the backdrop of other time frames like the “post-Cold War world” or “Third Industrial Revolution.” Here at Global North Institute, we’re glad to be a (very small) part of the think tank revolution. Starting in the 1960s and ‘70s, the US and UK pioneered independent research institutes that act as a sort of mid-point between universities and private research and development.
Worldwide, think tanks have prospered. Early movers like the Hudson Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Brookings Foundation, or the Cato Institute offer an alternative to universities, newspapers, and governments to develop new research and ideas. Since the 1980s, think tanks have grown more common in most countries, with prominent examples in countries as diverse as Brazil, Germany, Turkey, and Vietnam.
The think tank revolution may still be in its early phase. The very high cost of higher education, combined with falling enrollment in many Global North countries means that many universities may face increased financial stress in the decades to come. Think tanks—although subject to their own inefficiencies—might be a more efficient way of conducting many forms of research compared with universities. For raw transmission of information, universities still have an advantage, along with maintaining the high fixed costs of facilities like labs. Nevertheless, the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs), widespread distance learning, and the long-standing examples of private scientific research means that the future may see an increasingly blurring of distinctions between universities and think tanks. Universities run a significant risk of group think, leading to famous remarks about scientific revolutions depending more on the retirement of professors than new discoveries. To date, little research has considered whether universities or think tanks are more “effective” at promoting intellectual progress. Certainly, think tanks provide vital alternatives to the ideological group think in universities.
US think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute offer valuable alternative intellectual environments for academics who might be locked out of the ivory tower on ideological grounds. Unfortunately, heightened ideological rigidity in many fields means that the need for alternative, think tank style organizations is more important than ever. The American Academy of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which claims to speak on behalf of all women in the US aggressively promotes abortion, a decidedly non-neutral stance for a professional organization creating good grounds for an alternative organization. Even fields like urban planning now appear to need alternatives, to raise seasoned debate about demolishing highways and cramming narrow city streets with wide bike lanes.
Ultimately, the think tank model might be more efficient for many areas of research. More think tanks and research institutes in the sciences and technology, to supplement existing research institutes might foster the development of new ideas in biology, chemistry, or physics. Perhaps more think tanks should come up with alternative designs for cars, rather than the designs coming out of big auto makers to generate revenue for shareholders. Even fields like literary and language studies might benefit from the think tank model. Programs like the Iowa Writers Program or the Claremont Institute’s Review of Books are arguably a step in the right direction. Rather than resort to the “gen ed rent seeking,” creating unneeded course requirements to stay relevant (as our colleagues at Cato humorously observed in an episode of the Cato Daily Podcast), language experts could form new think tanks to offer remote language courses from anywhere, rather than maintain precarious Portuguese or German departments.
So long as existing non-profit laws remain—and ideally become more streamlined—the future looks bright for think tanks.
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