Daniel Bessner, Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor of American Foreign Policy, examines the role of think tanks in shaping U.S. foreign policy in “Can we democratize foreign policy?” published by Dissent Magazine.
Bessner writes: “Though less well-known than defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, think tanks are as important when it comes to determining the direction of U.S. foreign policy. It was think-tank analysts, for instance, who developed the nuclear strategies that guided U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, and it was think-tank analysts who helped establish the counterinsurgency doctrines that defined the U.S. wars in Vietnam and Iraq.”
