The triangle effect

Think tank sounds like a nasty word. But in reality, the work conducted at the leading Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Communication (CSIS), is instrumental in forming government policy in the areas of foreign policy, national security and global challenges. And CSIS does this from the middle of the aisle, not from either side of it.

What I found most important about CSIS is their emphasis on bipartisanship. They work diligently to ensure that the experts they hire to work with policy makers leave their personal and political ideologies out of the equation. We were told about several other think tanks in town that lean either slightly or heavily to the right or left, but what I took from CSIS is that in order to be prestigious and respected in the world of policy shaping, it’s integral to rely solely on the facts.

So think tanks help to form government policy. Isn’t that what our politicians should be doing? Well the fact of the matter is that what most people dislike about politicians, namely that their main concern is to get re-elected, is true. On a day-to-day basis, our government is a complex system to operate and when politicians spend most of their time on re-election campaigns rather than focusing on certain policy initiatives, something must fill the void. That’s where CSIS comes in. They’re almost like the grandfather you turn to for important advice because they are the only ones with the experience you trust to make a good decision. For example, when the Obama administration took a look at improving the security of cyberspace, CSIS experts gave them 35 recommendations for improvement, 28 of which the administration decided to run with.

Another way to really see the importance of CSIS is to look at a list of their trustees. It’s a who’s who of businessmen, politicians and other high-ranking officials, including presidents and CEOs of corporations like Exxon Mobil Corporation and former secretaries of state and defense. This led me to wonder how so many “type A” personalities could possibly keep their ideologies and business agendas from interfering with the work done at CSIS. When asked, we were told that when trustees give their money to become a member of the board, it’s only with complete understanding that they will have no say in shaping any policies coming from CSIS. And apparently these trustees agree to this because they want to be part of such a prestigious and independent institution.

I’m beginning to see where all of these institutions fit into the puzzle that is communication in Washington, D.C. and CSIS plays a very important role. As we spoke about this morning, there’s a sort of triangular relationship between think tanks, policy makers and the media, all of which we’ve now covered. The triangle wouldn’t come together without all of the pieces.