Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution is a think tank, based in Washington, D.C., in the United States.

The organization is currently headed by Strobe Talbott, a former Clinton administration appointee in the U.S. State Department. Carlos Pascual, the former Ambassador to Ukraine, serves as Vice President of Brookings and as the Director of the Foreign Policy Studies program.

Policy influence

Of the 200 most prominent think tanks in the U.S., the Brookings Institution studies are the third most-cited of all public policy institutes by Members of Congress, behind only the Heritage Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Along with the American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation, Brookings is generally considered one of the three most influential policy institutes in the U.S. Brookings has traditionally been considered as a center-left organization, while the American Enterprise Institute is considered conservative/free market and Heritage Foundation considered more right-wing. All three organizations are officially non-partisan, as required by their non-profit organizational status.

History

Brookings was founded in 1916, when a group of reformers founded the Institute for Government Research (IGR), the first private organization devoted to analyzing public policy issues at the national level.

The institution's founder, philanthropist Robert S. Brookings (1850–1932), originally financed the formation of three organizations: the Institute for Government Research, the Institute of Economics, and the Robert Brookings Graduate School. The three were merged into the Brookings Institution in 1927.

Named to Nixon's "Enemies List"

During the administration of Richard M. Nixon, Brookings was named to Nixon's famous enemies list, due to its criticism of Nixon's domestic and foreign policies. Nixon ordered a burglary of Brookings in 1971, looking for leaked government information about the Vietnam War. Nixon-administration advisor Charles Colson even proposed firebombing the Brookings Institution and stealing politically damaging documents while firefighters put the fire out.

Organization

Brookings focuses on five main areas of research: Economic Studies, Foreign Policy, Governance, Global Economy and Development, and Metropolitan Policy.

The five main programs include the following:

• Economic Studies Program
• Governance Studies Program
• Foreign Policy Studies Program
• Global Economy and Development Program
• Metropolitan Policy Program

Policy centers include the following:

• American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies
• Brown Center on Education Policy
• Center for Children and Families
• Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies
• Center on Social and Economic Dynamics
• Center on the United States and Europe
• John L. Thornton China Center
• Saban Center for Middle East Policy
• Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center
• The Wolfensohn Center

The Saban Center for Middle East Policy was founded by a grant from Mr. Haim Saban in 2002. The Saban Center has helped the Brookings Institution to dramatically expand its research and analysis of Middle East policy issues. In September 2006, Brookings announced the founding of The John L. Thornton China Center, a major new center focused on the study of Chinese politics and policy, with support from former President and COO of Goldman Sachs John L. Thornton. In November 2006, Brookings announced the opening of its first-ever overseas center, the Brookings-Tsinghua Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Brookings-Tsinghua Center

Members

Resident Scholars

Brookings currently has over 140 resident and nonresident scholars. Some of Brookings' notable resident scholars:

• Ivo H. Daalder, Foreign Policy Studies
• Kenneth Dam, Economic Studies
• E.J. Dionne, Governance Studies
• Gregg Easterbrook, Economic Studies, Governance Studies
• William G. Gale, Economic Studies, Tax Policy
• Philip H. Gordon, Foreign Policy Studies
• Ron Haskins, Economic Studies
• Stephen Hess, Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University
• Bruce Katz, Metropolitan policy
• Muqtedar Khan, Islam and Global Politics
• Michael O'Hanlon, expert on terrorism and foreign affairs
• Peter R. Orszag, Social Security (In January 2007, he left Brookings to become director of the Congressional Budget Office)
• Carlos Pascual, Foreign Policy Studies
• Jonathan Rauch, Governance Studies
• Alice Rivlin, United States budget process
• Peter Rodman, Foreign Policy Studies

Previous scholars include Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Political Affairs at the UN Ibrahim Gambari. Stéphane Dion, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition also served as a senior research fellow.

Trustees

Coca Cola Board of Directors member James D Robinson III is reported to be an honorary trustee for the Brookings Institution. Robinson's biography also describes him as a general partner and co-founder of RRE Ventures, president of J D Robinson Inc. (a strategic consulting firm) and non-executive chairman of the Board of Directors for Bristol-Myers Squibb (since 1976). He also serves on the Boards of Directors of Novell Inc., Visiprise and PrimeRevenue. Robinson is a member of the Business Council and the Council on Foreign Relations, and an honorary chairman of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Robinson was previously Chairman and CEO of American Express Company (1977 to 1993), Co-Chairman of the Business Roundtable and Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN).

Others

William Frenzel of the Brookings Institution is reported to be a member of the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN).

Funders

At the end of 2004 the Brookings Institution had assets of $258 million. It spent $39.7 million in that year. According to its annual report, the largest contributors in that year included the Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation; the governments of the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Others can be found listed at mediatransparency.org.

See also

• List of Brookings Institution scholars
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Heritage Foundation
• Tax Foundation
• Urban Institute

External links

• Brookings Institution Official Web Site.
• Brookings Institution Press
• Brookings' Tax Policy Center
• "Brookings: The Establishment's Think Tank", Extra!, FAIR, November/December 1998
• "The Brookings Institution: a Think Tank of Good Feelings", Voltaire Network, June 30, 2004 (Critic of Brookings).