Think tanks and research organizations set out to influence policy ideas and decisions—a goal that is key to the very fabric of these organizations. And yet, the ways that they actually achieve impact or measure progress along these lines remains fuzzy and underexplored. What Should Think Tanks Do? A Strategic Guide for Policy Impact is the first practical guide that is specifically tailored to think tanks, policy research, and advocacy organizations. Author Andrew Selee draws on extensive interviews with members of leading think tanks, as well as cutting-edge thinking in business and non-profit management, to provide concrete strategies for setting policy-oriented goals and shaping public opinion. Concise and practically-minded, What Should Think Tanks Do? helps those with an interest in think tanks to envision a well-oiled machine, while giving leaders in these organizations tools and tangible metrics to drive and evaluate success.
Price: $18.00
Pages: 128
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Imprint: Stanford Briefs
Publication Date:
31 July 2013
Trim Size: 8.00 X 5.00 in
ISBN: 9780804787987
Format: Paperback
"Contrary to its title, Andrew Selee's What Should Think Tanks Do? is not a book of prescriptions. Instead, it is a tool for thinking. It offers a set of principles and illustrative cases that, taken together, incite a reader to think clearly and creatively about how an organization might make the most valuable contributions possible to important public issues. Anyone who works in a public policy arena and struggles with questions of how best to spend their time and resources for maximum impact can potentially benefit from a couple of quiet hours' concentration on this short, engaging book . . . [What Should Think Tanks Do?] offers a great deal of ground truth and perspective about what it takes to successfully steer a policy-oriented team or organization in today's challenging public policy environment."—Jacqueline Meszaros, Science and Public Policy
Andrew Selee is Vice President of Programs at the Woodrow Wilson Center and former Director of its Mexico Institute. He has been a congressional staffer and served as staff and on the board of several non-profit organizations. He teaches at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University and writes extensively on international affairs.
