For those interested in think tank culture and the 21st century Imperial Brain Trust, a solid two-part article by Michael Flynn, 'Surge of Think Tanks Blurs U.S. Policy Lines' (Part 1, Part 2), a different version of which first appeared over at RightWeb.
- One of the (unfortunately unmentioned) hidden hands behind most of the US foreign policy-related think tanks are the philanthropic foundations. While Flynn overlooks them, in his recent article, Michael Barker revisits Edward Berman's classic study The Ideology of Philanthropy: the Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy.
- On the Canadian think tank front, there's some controversy brewing over at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the quasi-scholarly offshoot of the Balsillie/Canadian state-funded Centre for International Governance Institution (aka Council on Foreign Relations-North). It seems like little more than infighting amongst foreign policy elites, but is a story worth following. It should also be interesting to see how Balsillie's sister organization down Hwy 401, U of T's School of Global Affairs (jointly funded by corporate elite Peter Munk and the Ontario government) fares. For a country which, according to the Ottawa Citizen, lacks a 'think tank culture,' these 'new imperialism'-oriented outfits sure are on the ascension.