Think tanks are becoming prominent voices in policy debates, international agenda-setting and global governance. On such pressing issues as climate change, security, trade policy, and health, think tanks provide knowledge and insight that feed into policy and politics. The emerging global policy landscape must nowadays reckon with an actor with a potential for voice and influence.

This project investigates the role of transnational think tanks in the shaping of policy agendas. Think tanks may act as global policy brokers – mediating and translating ideas among various organizational actors in the global political landscape.

The project examines how globally active think tanks create policy-relevant knowledge and what kinds of expertise and practices that are involved in this process.

In the larger perspective, the project aims to contribute to an understanding of emerging global policy domains and new forms of governance.

Our methodological approach is multidimensional, involving ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and document studies.

Adrienne Sörbom and Christina Garsten