THINK TANKS & POLICY GROUPS

Africa Policy Information Center
The objective of the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) is to widen the policy debate in the United States around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa.
 
Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI) was founded in 1986 to study, promote and extend the principles of classical liberalism: political equality, civil liberty and economic freedom.

American Bankruptcy Institute
The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues.

American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) sponsors original research on government policy, the American economy and American politics. AEI research aims to preserve and to strengthen the foundations of a free society-government, competitive private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions and vigilant defense-rigorous inquiry, debate and writing.

Army War College Strategic Studies Institute
The Army War College Strategic Studies Institute is the U.S. Army's strategic-level think tank. Its major missions are to analyze political trends that affect national security policy and provide a bridge between the U.S. Army and the wider strategic community.

Asia Society
The Asia Society is dedicated to fostering an understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific.

Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an international, non-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the ability of business and professional leaders to understand and act upon the major issues challenging the national and international community.

Atlas Economic Research Foundation
The Atlas Economic Research Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt entity that helps to create, develop, advise and support independent public policy research institutes internationally.

Bionomics Institute
The Bionomics Institute is a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to replacing the traditional, mechanistic view of the economy with economy-as-ecosystem thinking.

British American Security Information Council
The British American Security Information Council (BASIC) is an independent research organization that analyzes international security policy in Europe and North America.

Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to research, education and publication in economics, government, foreign policy.

Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program
The Brookings Institution Center on Metropolitan Policy seeks to shape a new generation of urban policies that will help build strong cities and metropolitan regions.

Bureau of Governmental Research
The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) is a private, nonprofit, citizen-supported research organization dedicated to informed public-policy making and the improvement of local governments in the New Orleans metropolitan area.

Capital Research Center
Capital Research Center was established to study critical issues in philanthropy, with a special focus on nonprofit "public interest" and advocacy groups.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The endowment conducts programs of research, discussion, publication and education in international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The endowment also publishes the quarterly magazine, Foreign Policy .

Carter Center
Programs, staff, and publications from this public policy institute founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

Cascade Policy Institute
The Cascade Policy Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan and nonpolitical organization, explores voluntary, market-oriented answers to Oregon's public policy questions.

Cato Institute
The mission of the Cato Institute is to increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty and peace.

Center for Defense Information
The Center for Defense Information is a private, nongovernmental, research organization. CDI seeks realistic and cost effective military spending without excess expenditures for weapons and policies that increase the danger of war.

Center for Equal Opportunity
CEO focuses on three areas in particular: racial preferences, immigration and assimilation and multicultural education.

Center for Law and Social Policy
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is a national non-profit organization with expertise in both law and policy affecting the poor. CLASP seeks to improve the economic conditions of low-income families with children and secure access for the poor to our civil justice system.

Center for National Policy
CNP is dedicated to developing better understanding about major issues confronting the nation. Providing both a focus for analysis and a forum for debate, the center operates with a core staff that solicits information and ideas from a range of sources, including elected officials, academic experts, interest groups.

Center for Nonproliferation Studies
The mission of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies is to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction by training the next generation of nonproliferation specialists and disseminating timely information and analysis.

Center for Policy Alternatives
The Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is devoted to community-based solutions that strengthen families and communities. CPA links elected leaders at the state level with leaders of private andnon-profit sectors across the political spectrum, finding common ground, new ideas and resources to create solutions that work.

Center for Political and Strategic Studies
The Center for Political and Strategic is dedicated to broadening Western knowledge and understanding of complex international and domestic events.

Center for Responsive Politics
The Center for Responsive Politics is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group based in Washington, D.C. that specializes in the study of Congress and particularly the role that money plays in its elections and actions.

Center for Security Policy
The Center for Security Policy exists as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization to stimulate and inform the national and international debate about all aspects of security policy.

Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) is an independent policy research institute established to promote innovative thinking about defense planning and investment strategies for the 21st century.

Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a public policy research institution dedicated to policy analysis and impact. . It also covers key functional areas, such as international finance, the emerging markets, U.S. domestic and economic policy related to the strengthening of America and U.S. foreign policy and national security issues.

Center for Taiwan International Relations
The Center for Taiwan International Relations (CTIR) is a private, non-profit, non-partisan research organization established in Washington, D.C. in 1988. CTIR has always maintained that the sovereignty of Taiwan (including the Pescadores) belongs to 21 million people of Taiwan, and to no one else.

Center for the American Woman and Politics
The Center for the American Woman and Politics (CAWP) is a university-based research, education and public service center. Its mission is to promote greater understanding and knowledge about women's relationship to politics and government and to enhance women's influence and leadership in public life.

Center for the New West
The Center for the New West is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan institution for policy research, education and economic development.

Center for the Study of American Business
The Center for the Study of American Business was established to improve public understanding of the American business system and to foster a public policy environment in which the U.S. market economy can prosper.

Center for the Study of the Presidency
The Center for the Study of the Presidency, a public policy research center, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational corporation. Its goals are to build better citizens, better government and better leaders. Its primary focus is the American presidency and it seeks to develop a discipline of learning and a body of literature related thereto.

Center for Urban Policy Research
The Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University (CPRU) has informed the nation with its broad spectrum of urban research. CUPR is concerned with both academic urban research and the practical application of research results to policy design and implementation.

Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy
The Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy serves as a catalyst for the participation of women from diverse social, cultural and economic backgrounds in the political life of the Commonwealth (Massachussetts) and the nation.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a nonpartisan research and policy institute that provides timely analysis on government policies and programs that affect people of low-and moderate-incomes.

Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy
The Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy was formed to strengthen and encourage the use of basic data sets that relate to these organizations. One of the Center's chief components is the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS). The mission of NCCS is to build compatible national, state and regional databases and to develop uniform standards for reporting on the activities of charitable organizations.

Centre for Independent Studies
The Centre for Independent Studies is the leading independent public policy research institute in Australia and New Zealand committed to individual liberty and choice, including freedoms of association, religion, speech and the right to property; an economy based on free and competitive markets; democratic government under the rule of law and the importance of an autonomous and free civil society.

Claremont Institute
The Claremont Institute seeks is to restore the principles of the American founding fathers to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.

Committee for Economic Development
The Committee for Economic Development (CED) is an independent, nonpartisan organization of business and education leaders dedicated to policy research on the major economic and social issues of our time and the implementation of its recommendations by the public and private sectors.

Committee on Nuclear Policy
The committee facilitates cooperation among the projects so that their expertise and analyses can be made available to journalists, policy analysts and policy-makers in a timely and usable fashion.

Commonwealth Club of California
The Commonwealth Club of California is a public affairs speaking forum in the United States.

Commonwealth Fund
The Commonwealth Fund, a New York City-based national foundation, engages in independent research on health and social policy issues.

Commonwealth Institute
The Commonwealth Institute is a progressive public policy research and educational organization located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Council for Aid to Education
The Council for Aid to Education is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit national organization dedicated both to enhancing the effectiveness of corporate and other private-sector support in improving education at all levels and to helping education institutions more effectively acquire private support for their programs.

Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that takes no position on issues but is dedicated to improving the understanding of international affairs and American foreign policy through the free exchange of ideas.

Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a center for national and international affairs based in Seattle, Wash. Its programs center on the application of advanced technology to individual liberty, representative democracy, free enterprise, internationalism and the enduring moral principles of civilized society.

Economic Policy Institute
The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy.

Economic Strategy Institute
ESI works to define a new economic agenda by challenging old assumptions and developing an integrated, macro/micro economic strategy to realize the full potential of America's rich material and human resources.

Education Policy Institute
The Education Policy Institute is nonprofit organization devoted to educational research, policy analysis and training from a public choice and market oriented perspective.

Electronic Educational Excellence Network
The Educational Excellence Network seeks to improve the education system in the United States.

Electronic Policy Network
Covers social and economic issues, and policy analysis in the journal, Idea Central. With member details.

Employee Benefit Research Institute
The institute's mission is to advance the public's, the media's and policymaker's knowledge and understanding of employee benefits and their importance to our nation's economy.

Employment Policies Institute
The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying entry-level employment issues such as the minimum wage, part-time workers, welfare to work and illiteracy.

Empower America
Empower America was formed to support basic principles of economic growth, spreading freedom and democracy world-wide and restoring America's cultural heritage.

Environmental Law Institute
The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) advances environmental protection by improving law, policy and management. ELI researches pressing problems, educates professionals and citizens about the nature of these issues and convenes all sectors in forging effective solutions.

Ethics and Public Policy Center
The center affirms the political relevance of the great Western ethical imperatives--respect for the dignity of every person, individual freedom and responsibility, justice, the rule of law and limited government. It maintains that moral reasoning is an essential complement to empirical calculation in the shaping of public policy.

Foreign Policy Institute - (Turkey)
The Foreign Policy Institute-Turkey was founded in 1974 as an independent research organization to study issues related with Turkish Foreign Policy.

Foundation Center
The center's mission is to foster public understanding of the foundation field by collecting, organizing, analyzing and disseminating information on foundations, corporate giving and related subjects.

Fraser Institute - (Canada)
The Fraser Institute was founded to redirect public attention to the role markets can play in providing for the economic and social well-being of Canadians.

George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies is dedicated to stabilizing and thereby strengthening Post-Cold War Europe. Specifically, the center aids defense and foreign ministries in Europe's aspiring democracies to develop national security organizations and systems that reflect democratic principles.

Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute sponsors and promotes sound research on the problems faced by state and local governments.

Henry L. Stimson Center
The Henry L. Stimson Center concentrates on particularly difficult national and international security and foreign policy issues where technology, policy and politics intersect. The center deals extensively with reducing and eliminating weapons of mass destruction, foreign policy issues and the conflict of U.S. involvement abroad and confidence building measures in South-East Asia and China.

Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation was established as a nonpartisan, tax-exempt policy research institute dedicated to the principles of free competitive enterprise, limited government, individual liberty and a strong national defense.

Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a center for advanced study in domestic and international affairs.

Hudson Institute
Hudson analyzes and makes recommendations about public policy for business and government executives and for the public at large.

Independence Institute
The Independence Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy research organization dedicated to providing timely information to concerned citizens, government officials and public opinion leaders.

Independent Institute
The Independent Institute seeks to push the frontiers of our knowledge, redefines the debate over public issues, and fosters new and effective directions for government reform.

Institute for Fiscal Studies - (United Kingdom)
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) i aims to bridge the gap between policy-makers and academics: to bring academic rigour to policy discussion and policy relevance to academic research.

Institute for International Economics
The Institute for International Economics is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy.

Institute for National Strategic Studies
The Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) is an interdisciplinary research institute staffed by senior civilian and military analysts from all four armed services.

Institute For Palestine Studies
The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is a private, nonprofit Arab institute unaffiliated with any political organization or government. IPS promotes research, analysis, and documentation on the Arab-Israeli conflict and its peaceful resolution.

Institute for Policy Innovation
The Institute for Policy Innovation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think tank based in Lewisville, Texas and founded in 1987 to research, develop and promote innovative and nonpartisan solutions to today's public policy problems.

Institute for Policy Studies
The Institute for Policy Studies has served as an independent center for progressive research and education.

Institute for Socioeconomic Studies
The Institute for Socioeconomic Studies is a nonprofit foundation with broad research interests relating to the quality of life, social motivation, poverty, urban regeneration and the problems of the elderly, primarily as they relate to domestic government policy.

Institute for the Study of Civic Values
The Institute for the Study of Civic Values is a nonprofit organization that seeks topromote the fulfillment of America's historic civic ideals.

Institute for Women's Policy Research
The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) is an independent, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) certified, scientific research organization incorporated in the District of Columbia, established in 1987 to rectify the limited availability of policy relevant research on women's lives and to inform and stimulate debate on issues of critical importance for women.

Institute of Economic Affairs - (United Kingdom)
The Institute of Economic Affairs is a research and educational charity. It specializes in studies of markets and pricing systems as technical devices for registering preferences and apportioning resources.

Interhemispheric Resource Center
The Interhemispheric Resource Center produces books, policy reports, and periodicals about U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-Mexico border issues.

International Institute For Strategic Studies
The International Institute for Strategic Studiesis an independent center for research, information and debate on the problems of conflict, that have, or potentially have, an important military context.

Iraq Foundation
The Iraq Foundation is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization working for democracy and human rights in Iraq, and for a better international understanding of Iraq's potential as a contributor to political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.

James Madison Institute
The James Madison Institute is a Florida-based nonprofit research and educational organization. The guiding philosophy of the institute is based on a profound belief in such timeless ideals as economic freedom, limited government, federalism, traditional values, the rule of law and individual liberty coupled with individual responsibility.

Japan Policy Research Institute
The Japan Policy Research Institute is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the promotion of understanding of Japan's political economic behavior and growing significance in world affairs.

John Locke Foundation
The John Locke Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy institute based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its purpose is to conduct research, disseminate information, and advance public understanding of society based on the principles of individual liberty, the voluntary exchanges of a free market economy and limited government.

Levy Institute
The Levy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, independently funded research organization devoted to public service. Through scholarship and economic forecasting it generates viable, effective public policy responses to important economic problems that profoundly affect the quality of life in the United States and abroad.

Manpower Development Research Corporation
The Manpower Development Research Corporation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that develops and evaluates innovative approaches to moving people from welfare to work, building a stronger workforce through training, revitalizing low-income communities and improving secondary education for at-risk youth.

Massachusetts Institute for a New Economy
The Massachusetts Institute for a New Economy (MassINC) is an independent state-based think tank informing the public debate about the most critical economic and social issues affecting the health of Massachusetts and its working and middle-class citizens.

Mayo Foundation
The Mayo Foundation is a center for medical education and research.

Middle East Institute
The Middle East Institute is dedicated to educating Americans about the Middle East. MEI offers cultural and political seminars, the quarterly Middle East Journal, Middle Eastern languages classes, an annual conference, the George Camp Keiser Library, educational outreach materials, and internships.

Milken Institute for Job and Capital Formation
The Milken Institute for Job and Capital Formation is a private, nonprofit and nonpartisan foundation established to support research and public discourse on the determinants of economic growth.

National Academy of Sciences
This non-profit organization provides a public service by working outside the framework of government to ensure independent advice on matters of science. The Academy enlists committees of the nation's top scientists, engineers and other experts -- all of whom volunteer their time to study specific concerns. The results of their deliberations have inspired some of America's most significant and lasting efforts to improve the health, education and welfare of the population.

National Academy of Social Insurance
The National Academy of Social Insurance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes research and education concerning Social Security, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation, the appropriate role of government in protecting individuals from the costs of personal health care services and related public and private programs.

National Center for Policy Analysis
The National Center for Policy Analysis is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt public policy research institute which supports free enterprise, low taxes, limited government and a strong national defense.

National Center for Public Policy Research
The National Center for Public Policy Research is a tax-exempt conservative action foundation. It uses research, information dissemination and grassroots and coalition educational programs to develop and illustrate to the general public the conservative perspective on issue of national concern.

National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA)* is a think/action tank that brings together under one roof all of the professional disciplines (health policy, medicine and nursing, communications, economics, sociology and anthropology, law and law enforcement, business, religion and education) needed to study and combat all forms of substance abuse -- illegal drugs, pills, alcohol and tobacco -- as they affect all aspects of society.

National Center on Education and the Economy
The National Center on Education and the Economy is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development of a comprehensive US system of education, employment and training.

National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal
The National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal was established by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation to consider how private giving in America can help revive the poorest communities and promote self-sufficiency and independence among all citizens.

National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
The National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating birth defects caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy and improving the quality of life for those individuals and families affected.

National Regulatory Research Institute
The National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) was established to provide research, educational services and technical services to the state regulatory commissions. At the highest level of generalization, the goals of the NRRI are accomplished through research, education, and service.

National Research Council
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the academy's purposes of further knowledge and advising the federal government.

Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security
The Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security is an independent, non-profit center created to do research and policy analysis in the areas of environment, sustainable development and international security.

Pacific Research Institute
The Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy promotes the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility. The institute believes these principles are best encouraged through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initiative and limited government. By focusing on public policy issues such as education, the environment, law, economics and social welfare, the institute strives to foster a better understanding of the principles of a free society among leaders in government, academia, the media and the business community.

Policy Exchange Foundation
Is a nonprofit educational and research foundation, the Southern Exchange expanded into the Policy Exchange Foundation in 1994. As the foundation has grown, the focus has remained on issues, policy and legislation across the nation.

Political Economy Research Center
The Political Economy Research Center (PERC) is a market-oriented think tank focusing on environmental and natural resource issues. Its research and policy analysis cover endangered species, forestry, fisheries, parks, public lands, property rights, Superfund, water and environmental education.

Progress and Freedom Foundation
The Progress and Freedom Foundation is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan idea center organized to restore, to renew and to recreate America's sense of its future, a future woven inextricably with the ideas of progress and freedom.

Progressive Policy Institute
The Progressive Policy Institute is a center for policy innovation that develops alternatives to the traditional debate between the left and the right. PPI advocates growth-oriented economic policies designed to stimulate broad upward mobility and foster a more inclusive, more democratic capitalism; social policies that move beyond maintaining the poor to liberating them from poverty and dependence and a foreign policy of resolve in defending America's interests and promoting democracy abroad.

Public Agenda
Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen education organization based in New York City.

Public Policy Institute of California
The Public Policy Institute of California is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to independent, nonpartisan research on economic, social and political issues that affect the lives of Californians.

Public Service Research Foundation
The Public Service Research Foundation is a research and education organization studying the impact of unions in government on government. Since 1980 it has published a quarterly journal, the Government Union Review, which contains many excellent scholarly articles on this topic.

RAND
RAND is a private, nonprofit institution that helps improve public policy through research and analysis.

Reason Public Policy Institute
The Reason Foundation and Public Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research and educational organization dedicated to advancing the principles of a free society.

Resources for the Future
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research organization that aims to help people make better decisions about the conservation and use of their natural resources and the environment. As the world's knowledge of the environment grows and competition for natural and financial resources becomes more intense, the need for policies based on information rather than inclination becomes increasingly crucial. RFF strives to provide accurate, objective information to policy makers, legislators, public opinion leaders, and environmentalists to help them responsibly meet the nation's and the world's long-term environmental and economic needs.

Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies
The Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies sponsors lectures, research, seminars, conferences and courses for future leaders in business and society to learn how the principles of free enterprise build a strong economy. Programs and activities explore in-depth the concepts of private property, voluntary exchange, economic and civil liberties, constitutional law, financial markets, entrepreneurship, risk-taking and new venture management.

Tax Foundation
The Tax Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research organization that monitors fiscal issues at the federal, state and local levels.

Think Tank Online
Based on weekly PBS Think Tank program with experts discussing current issues.

Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation supports research, publications, and action projects of national significance in elementary-secondary education reform, as well as consequential education projects in Dayton, Ohio and vicinity. It has assumed primary sponsorship of the Educational Excellence Network, which also remains affiliated with the Hudson Institute.

Twentieth Century Fund
Since 1919, the Twentieth Century Fund, a nonpartisan foundation, has been at the forefront researching and writing about progressive public policy. It produces books, reports, and other publications and convenes task forces of citizens and experts -- all with an eye toward finding fresh approaches to the major issues of the day.

Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is a private, nonprofit policy research and educational organization, established in 1968, to investigate the social and economic problems confronting the nation and government policies and programs designed to alleviate such problems.

W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research was founded to research and promote solutions to employment related problems. It is a not-for-profit, independent research institution with nine professional economists on staff. The institute also sponsors a competitive grant program that funds original research and publishes monographs and working papers.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the United States official memorial to Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. The center aims, in a strictly nonpartisan fashion, to foster scholarship and promote the exchange of views between scholars and decision makers that was envisaged by Woodrow Wilson--a college teacher and university president, as well as a politician and international statesman.

World Directory of Think Tanks
Profiles and contacts for think tanks worldwide. From Japan's National Institute of Research Advancement.

World Water Council
The World Water Council promotes awareness about critical water issues at all levels, including the highest decision-making level, and to facilitate the efficient protection, development, planning, management and use of global water on an environmentally sustainable basis for the benefit of all people.