Formation/Cours

The goal of the course is to introduce students to think tanks in the EU setting and beyond. Students will acquire an understanding of the work and activities conducted by think tanks, their role in policy making and differences compared to other research organisations. While not aiming to exhaustively prepare students in a specific policymaking field, the course focuses on three specific policy areas: migration, climate/environment and foreign policy. Students will learn to critically engage with policy analysis in these areas, and will be asked to write a short policy brief in one of these three areas.

The course is divided in three blocks/clusters. As part of the first block, the first class will provide an overview of the origins of think tanks and their evolution; it will examine their goals and discuss what differentiates them from academic institutions. The second class will discuss questions around the independence of think tanks, their financial model and sources, the links with the private sector and political lobbies, among others. As part of the second block, the third class will move on to discuss more specifically what types of activities think tanks organise and their internal structures. The fourth class will discuss the ‘impact’ of think tank’s activities: how this is measured, and how can think tank and analysts increase their relevance in the current world. As part of the third block, the fifth class will specifically look at different types of written analyses by that think tanks, focusing on the three policy areas examined in the course. The sixth and final class will be dedicated to possible implementation problems that may arise when conducting research for a think tank.