The Second European Think Tank Summit and the role of think tanks

The Second European Think Tank Summit took place in Barcelona between March 10th and 12th 2014. Thirty-eight think tanks from twenty-one countries from all over Europe attended – CASE was represented by our Fellow, Marek Dabrowski. In the light of recent developments, much of the summit was devoted to the question of how Think Tanks can influence diplomacy and the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. With this in mind particular attention was given to Ukraine and to the ongoing crisis there, focusing on Ukrainian-Russian relations and also EU-Russian relations. The role which think tanks should play in large global conflicts such as this was also analysed.

The summit consisted of six separate discussion sessions and these all focused on the many roles of think tanks in Europe, such as the competition between think tanks and think tank networking. The conversations looked at how to create further international cooperation between think tanks despite the continual competition. It went on to look at many other areas including the development of a legal framework for the organisation.

The meeting was organized by the University of Pennsylvania and the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs in relation to the annual report "The 2013 Global Go To-Think Tank Index” which can be viewed in full at http://gotothinktank.com/the-2013-global-go-to-think-tank-index-ggtti/. This year CASE was ranked as the best think tank in Central and Eastern Europe for the second year in a row and was placed very highly in many other categories.
 

Pictures courtesy of Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program University of Pennsylvania.