Think Tank Funding in America
Washington’s foreign policy think tanks are awash in special interest funding. The Quincy Institute recently released a database, found at ThinkTankFundingTracker.org, which allows users to follow these funding relationships for themselves. According to that database and accompanying policy brief, foreign governments contributed $110 million, the U.S. government donated 1.5 billion, and Pentagon contractors gave $35 million to the top U.S. foreign policy think tanks. The investigation also found that over a third of the top think tanks disclose nothing at all about their donors.
While think tanks present themselves as independent and objective actors, the prevalence of special interest funding raises questions of intellectual freedom, self-censorship, and perspective filtering. What role does think tank funding play in influencing U.S. foreign policy, and what can be done?
To answer these questions and more, join a conversation featuring Estefanía Terán Valdez, director of On Think Tanks, Michael Hartmann, senior fellow and director of the Center for Strategic Giving at the Capital Research Center, and Benoît Pelopidas, founder of Nuclear Knowledges. Nick Cleveland-Stout, junior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, will moderate the conversation.
The conversation will take place on Tuesday, February 18th from 12:00 – 1:00 PM Eastern Time.
Program
Entities
Panelists
Estefanía Terán Valdez
For over fifteen years, Estefanía has built a robust track record of success in leading and coordinating teams, research, and projects focused on promoting civic engagement and strengthening democratic institutions. She has provided valuable support and leadership in organisational strengthening processes, strategic planning, and advocacy efforts and adeptly managed complex relationships with various stakeholders that arise from collaborative work. Before joining OTT, Terán worked for seven years in Grupo FARO, one of the leading think tanks in Ecuador. Her last position was Interim Executive Director. Estefanía is an international human rights law lawyer with a Master's in Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Germany.
Michael Hartmann
Michael E. Hartmann is a co-editor of The Giving Review and a senior fellow at the Capital Research Center (CRC) in Washington, D.C. For almost 20 years, Hartmann served in various roles on the program staff of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee, including as its director of research. Before joining Bradley, he was director of research at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. He has been a consultant to other foundations and education-reform organizations, as well. Hartmann is a past visiting fellow of the Philanthropy Roundtable in Washington, D.C., for which he researched and wrote Helping People to Help Themselves: A Guide for Donors, and he co-authored CRC’s The Flow of Funding to Conservative and Liberal Political Campaigns, Independent Groups, and Traditional Public Policy Organizations Before and After Citizens United—hailed as “an unprecedented study” by RealClearPolicy.
Benoît Pelopidas
Prof. Benoît Pelopidas (PhD) founded the program Nuclear Knowledges and holds the chair of excellence in security studies at CERI (Sciences Po). He is also an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University and has been a frequent visiting fellow at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security. In France, Nuclear Knowledges is the first scholarly research program on the nuclear phenomenon, which is fully independent and transparent on its funding sources. He focuses on the construction of knowledge about nuclear weapons, their institutional, conceptual, imaginal and memorial underpinnings. Conceptually, he elaborates nuclear vulnerability beyond its material and strategic dimensions. Empirically, Benoit’s focus is on nuclear “close calls”, crisis management and French nuclear history.
Nick Cleveland-Stout
Nick Cleveland-Stout is a junior research fellow in the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Previously, he conducted research on U.S.-Brazil relations as a 2023 Fulbright fellow at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, with a particular focus on the influence of American think tanks in Brazil. Nick is also a former Marcellus Policy Fellow with the John Quincy Adams Society, where he authored “The Case for a ‘Green BRAC.'” His work has appeared in Responsible Statecraft, The Nation, The Intercept, The Brazilian Report, Inkstick, and The National Interest. Nick earned his Bachelor’s degree from Colorado College, where he studied political science.