This international workshop considers the historic and contemporary role of American think tanks and philanthropic foundations in world politics. It is the first of two such events. The second will be held at the Nehru Memorial Institute in New Delhi in April. The aim is to evaluate the significance of organised knowledge – in elite think tanks, foundations and allied institutions – in US foreign and national security strategies and approaches.

In the LSE IDEAS-City workshop the focus is on the role of US think tanks in several states and societies including India, China, Indonesia, Japan, Iraq, western Africa, and Brazil, and in building and consolidating the liberal international order.

It is also clear that the US think tank landscape is evolving especially in the wake of broad discontent with liberal interventionism that led to “forever wars”. The workshop will consider how think tanks are responding to the Trump challenge and explore the prospects for recently-formed new think tanks that challenge the hegemony of liberal internationalism and military interventionism.

Click here to view the conference programme.