US Think Tanks Make Foreign Policy

Share this

Brian Whitaker profiles the "cosy and cleverly-constructed network of Middle East 'experts'" who "pop up as talking heads on US television, in newspapers, books, testimonies to congressional committees, and at lunchtime gatherings in Washington." Players include the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Institute and the Middle East Forum. "Although these three privately-funded organisations promote views from only one end of the political spectrum, the amount of exposure that they get with their books, articles and TV appearances is extraordinary." Meanwhile, the media largely ignore the 1,400 full-time faculty members who specialize in Middle East studies at American universities. "Those who work for US thinktanks are often given university-style titles such as 'senior fellow,' or 'adjunct scholar,' but their research is very different from that of universities - it is entirely directed towards shaping government policy," Whitaker writes. "What nobody outside the thinktanks knows, however, is who pays for this policy-shaping research."