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  • Think tank review
  • 21. listopadu 2014

Think Tank Review - Issue 18/2014

Our latest monthly Think Tank Review, issue 18/2014, has been released.

In October, EU think tanks were still charting the new institutional landscape. We see joint proposals for strategic orientations, such as in the New Pact for Europe report, and references to 'politics' and 'politicisation' of the EU arena or specifically of the European Commission - although academics also mention its 'presidentialization'.

In line with the 'wait-and-see' mood, the October European Council was seen as a 'transition' summit, although by no means a low-impact one, by a leading commentator. The same mood obviously facilitates creative speculation, as in the joint paper by the German DGAP and the Polish PISM. The authors ask a counterfactual "what if…?" in various policy areas, including tricky questions such as "what If the British had voted to leave in 1975?" and "what if Yugoslavia had joined the EU?".

The Spanish Real Instituto Elcano, in a wide self-reflection exercise, beautifully maps the networks between EU think tanks, tracing how they convey "ideas locales que viajan en inglés". To be read in conjunction with a recent article on think tanks as fora for interest mediation, in the open access Journal of Contemporary European Research. We also look forward to a panel on think tanks at the next International Conference on Public Policy in Milan in July 2015.

The next Think Tank Review will be out in December 2014, covering publications from November 2014.

For articles published in previous editions of the Think Tank Review, check our repository of think tank publications on EU affairs.