Top Asian think tanks

The National University of Singapore (NUS), ranked 30th in the QS World University Rankings last year, is well positioned to be the number one authority on Asia, reports the Straits Times, quoting NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan.

Channel NewsAsia says he wants the university to be a leading research institution on Asia and “much of this research will be led by a new centre called the Global-Asia Institute”. NUS already has a strong Asia focus in some areas such as law and public policy, it adds.

Indeed, NUS already has think tanks like the Institute of South Asian Studies and the Institute of Policy Studies, which is part of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, whose dean is the internationally respected former diplomat Kishore Mahbubani.

But, according to the Foreign Policy magazine, the top five Asian think tanks are:

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (China)
Japan Institute of International Affairs (Japan)
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (India)
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Indonesia)
Institute for International Policy Studies (Japan)

The magazine’s just released Think Tank Index is the first comprehensive ranking of the world’s best think tanks, based on a worldwide survey of hundreds of scholars and experts.

However, looking at the rankings, one might think the bigger the country, the more influential are its think tanks.

But that’s not the case if one looks at the top five think tanks in the Middle East and North Africa:

Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (Egypt)
Center for Strategic Studies (Jordan)
Institute for National Security Studies (Israel)
Gulf Research Center (United Arab Emirates)
Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (United Arab Emirates)

So there is every possibility NUS will become “the number one authority on Asia” as it plans to recruit “world-class faculty with expertise in relation to China, India and other parts of Asia” for its Global-Asia Institute.

The payoff can be huge. As the Foreign Policy magazine says:

In Washington, it’s not for nothing that think tanks are called “governments in waiting.” … Leaders around the world need them to provide independent analysis, help set policy agendas, and bridge the gap between knowledge and action.

There are some 5,500 think tanks worldwide, including 653 in Asia alone, says the report.

According to the magazine, the top think tanks for innovative ideas are:

1. Cato Institute
2. Brookings Institution
3. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The most influential think tanks on public policy are:

Brookings Institution
Heritage Foundation

The top five security and international think tanks are: