Editing Think tank (section)

== History ==
According to historian [[Jacob Soll]], while the term "think tank" is modern, with its origin {{qi|traced to the humanist academies and scholarly networks of the 16th and 17th centuries,}} evidence shows that, {{qi|in Europe, the origins of think tanks go back to the 800s when emperors and kings began arguing with the Catholic Church about taxes. A tradition of hiring teams of independent lawyers to advise monarchs about their financial and political prerogatives against the church spans from Charlemagne all the way to the 17th century, when the kings of France were still arguing about whether they had the right to appoint bishops and receive a cut of their income.}}

Soll cites as an early example the {{lang|fr|Académie des frères Dupuy}}, created in [[Paris]] around 1620 by the brothers [[Pierre Dupuy (scholar)|Pierre]] and Jacques Dupuy and also known after 1635 as the {{lang|fr|cabinet des frères Dupuy}}.<ref name="Soll">{{Cite news |title=How Think Tanks Became Engines of Royal Propaganda |first=Jacob |last=Soll |work=Tablet Magazine |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/think-tanks-jacob-soll-propaganda |date=1 February 2017 |access-date=12 December 2021 |archive-date=12 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212113234/https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/think-tanks-jacob-soll-propaganda |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Club de l'Entresol]], active in Paris between 1723 and 1731, was another prominent example of an early independent think tank focusing on public policy and current affairs, especially economics and foreign affairs.<ref>{{Citation |last=Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire |title=La France des Lumières 1715–1789 |date=2011 |pages=112–115 |place=Paris |publisher=Belin}}</ref>

=== 19th century ===
Several major current think tanks were founded in the 19th century. The [[Royal United Services Institute]] was founded in 1831 in [[London]], and the [[Fabian Society]] in 1884.

=== 20th century ===
The oldest [[United States]]–based think tank, the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]], was founded in [[Washington, D.C.]], in 1910 by philanthropist [[Andrew Carnegie]]. Carnegie charged trustees to use the fund to {{qi|hasten the abolition of international war, the foulest blot upon our civilization.}}<ref>Edmund Jan Osmanczyk and Anthony Mango, ''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements.'' London: Routledge, 2004.</ref> The [[Brookings Institution]] was founded shortly thereafter in 1916 by [[Robert S. Brookings]] and was conceived as a bipartisan {{qi|research center modeled on academic institutions and focused on addressing the questions of the federal government.}}<ref name="utnethinktank">{{Cite journal |last=Tevi Troy |date=May–June 2012 |title=No More Thinking With Think Tanks |url=http://www.utne.com/politics/think-tanks-zm0z12mjzros.aspx#ixzz2IZbPGmre |journal=Utne |access-date=20 January 2013 |archive-date=26 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126092651/http://www.utne.com/politics/think-tanks-zm0z12mjzros.aspx#ixzz2IZbPGmre |url-status=live }}</ref>

After 1945, the number of policy institutes increased, with many small new ones forming to express various issues and policy agendas. Until the 1940s, most think tanks were known only by the name of the institution. During the Second World War, think tanks were often referred to as "brain boxes".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stone |first=Diane |title=Capturing the Political Imagination: Think Tanks and the Policy Process |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1136309045 |page=9}}</ref>

Before the 1950s, the phrase "think tank" did not refer to organizations. From its first appearances in the 1890s up to the 1950s, the phrase was most commonly used in [[American English]] to colloquially refer to the [[Neurocranium|braincase]] or especially in a pejorative context to the [[human brain]] itself when commenting on an individual's failings (in the sense that something was wrong with that person's "think tank").<ref name="Medvetz">{{Cite book |last=Medvetz |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kuh_VuW1WisC&pg=PA25 |title=Think Tanks in America |date=2012 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226517292 |location=Chicago |access-date=28 October 2020}}</ref>{{rp|25}} Around 1958, the first organization to be regularly described in published writings as "the Think Tank" (note the [[title case]] and the use of the [[Article (grammar)|definite article]]) was the [[Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences]].<ref name="Medvetz"/>{{rp|26}} However, the Center does not count itself as and is not perceived to be a think tank in the contemporary sense.<ref name="Medvetz"/>{{rp|26}} During the 1960s, the phrase "think tank" was attached more broadly to meetings of experts, [[Digital electronic computer|electronic computers]],<ref name="Medvetz"/>{{rp|27}} and independent military planning organizations.<ref name="Medvetz"/>{{rp|26}} The prototype and most prominent example of the third category was the [[RAND Corporation]], which was founded in 1946 as an offshoot of [[Douglas Aircraft]] and became an independent corporation in 1948.<ref name="Medvetz"/>{{rp|70}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fetherling |first=George |date=12 May 2008 |title=In the Tank |url=https://thewalrus.ca/2008-05-media/ |access-date=6 January 2020 |website=The Walrus |language=en-US |archive-date=17 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417065212/https://thewalrus.ca/2008-05-media/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 1970s, the phrase became more specifically defined in terms of RAND and others.<ref name="Medvetz"/>{{rp|28}} During the 1980s and 1990s, the phrase evolved again to arrive at its broader contemporary meaning of an independent public policy research institute.<ref name="Medvetz"/>{{rp|28}}

For most of the 20th century, such institutes were found primarily in the United States, along with much smaller numbers in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe. Although think tanks had also existed in [[Japan]] for some time, they generally lacked independence, having close associations with government ministries or corporations. There has been a veritable proliferation of "think tanks" around the world that began during the 1980s as a result of globalization, the end of the [[Cold War]], and the emergence of transnational problems. Two-thirds of all the think tanks that exist today were established after 1970 and more than half were established since 1980.<ref name="McGann">{{Cite web |last=McGann |first=James |title=Think Tanks and the Transnationalization of Foreign Policy |url=http://www.fpri.org/enotes/thinktanks.20021216.mcgann.transnationalforeignpolicy.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629131900/http://www.fpri.org/enotes/thinktanks.20021216.mcgann.transnationalforeignpolicy.html |archive-date=29 June 2011 |publisher=Foreign Policy Research Institute }}</ref>

The effect of [[Globalization|globalisation]] on the proliferation of think tanks is most evident in regions such as Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and parts of Southeast Asia, where there was a concerted effort by other countries to assist in the creation of independent public policy research organizations. A survey performed by the Foreign Policy Research Institute's [[Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program]] underscores the significance of this effort and documents the fact that most of the think tanks in these regions have been established since 1992.

=== 21st century ===
{{As of|2014|}}, there were more than 11,000 of these institutions worldwide.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=G. McGann |first=James |date=22 January 2014 |title=2013 Global Go to Think Tank Index Report |url=http://gotothinktank.com/dev1/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GoToReport2013.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112134808/http://gotothinktank.com/dev1/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GoToReport2013.pdf |archive-date=12 January 2016 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=G. McGann |first=James |date=28 January 2022 |title=2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=think_tanks |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522000141/https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=think_tanks |archive-date=22 May 2021 |access-date=28 September 2022 |website=[[University of Pennsylvania]]}}</ref> Many of the more established think tanks, created during the [[Cold War]], are focused on international affairs, security studies, and foreign policy.<ref name="McGann" />