Why are think tanks more important now than ever before: think tanks in a post-factual world

In order to mark the launch of the 2016 Go To Think Tank Index, published annually by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the University of Pennsylvania, we organize a public discussion destined to take stock of how think tanks in the Czech Republic and beyond are still able today to fulfill their functions of informing policy debates. The idea of a “post-factual” environment, in which Brexit and the victory of Donald Trump are possible, in which the so-called “fake news” spread by social media reinforce biases, has increasingly taken hold of the public debate and constitutes a real challenge to the very role of the think tanks: informing decision makers and a wide audience alike about current and future challenges, acting as intermediaries between the population and decision-makers, and producing new thinking about policies.

The public discussion will take place on Thursday, January 26 2017 from 14:00 to 15:45 at the United Nations Information Centre in Prague (Železná 24, Prague 1).

Opening remarks:

• ​Vladimír Bartovic, Director, EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy

Confirmed speakers:

• Rosa Balfour, Acting Director, Europe Program, German Marshall Fund of the U.S.
• Jan Macháček, Chairman of the board of trustees, Institute for Politics and Society
• Jiří Schneider, Executive Director, Aspen Institute Prague

The event will be moderated by Martin Michelot, Deputy Director, EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy.

In a region where the role of civil society groups like think tanks are increasingly under pressure, and where the role of outside expertise is sometimes diminished and discredited by the politicians themselves, there is a renewed urgency for think tanks to get together and discuss how they can react to these trends in order to be able to shape future policies but also continue to reach as wide a population as possible. 

You can register here or contact us via europeum@europeum.org. For more information, you can download the invitation through the PDF button on the right and find the event also on Facebook.

More information on the initiative and the full document of last year's rankings (2015 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report) are available here.