On Think Tanks...

If think tanks is a topic you find of interest, I think this article by Peter Singer is a very good read. You may want to also see this report (PDF), which ranks think tanks by several categories (and I believe is the ranking system that Peter Singer refers to in his article).

From the perspective of this blog, most think tanks don't really contribute ideas I find useful for discussion because most think tanks don't discuss naval or maritime issues specifically - rather in the context of larger strategy or a more general topic like China, Iran, etc...

If you exclude CNA, the pool of maritime experts in the private think tank industry is so small I think I can name the specific people contributing the most by name:

Mackenzie Eaglen - Heritage
Jan van Tol - CSBA
Dakota Wood - CSBA

Don't get me wrong, CSIS and Brookings both contribute to the Navy discussion (and specifically I would say Peter Singer and Anthony Cordesman are excellent), but they are big picture thinkers who don't focus on the maritime services like the 3 mentioned above. If you remove CNA - where are the thinkers outside the Navy who contribute ideas for public understanding as described by Peter Singer as part of the Think Tank function?

As I was thinking about Peter Singers article in the context of where the creative thought is on topics covered by this blog, if you remove CNA from the discussion - I think I could make a good argument that in 2010 Bryan McGrath is the most publicly published idea producer of naval topics in Washington, DC right now - on this blog and elsewhere.

In 2010 Mackenzie was pregnant, Jon is busy on AirSea Battle, and Dakota is stuck in EFV purgatory. With the exception of the Navy academics and contributions by Proceedings - that basically leaves Bryan McGrath and a small handful of bloggers as the only outside contributors of ideas to the Navy discussion.

When you consider how small the public discussion really is, particularly since the academics all talk over email instead of blogs (with a few notable exceptions), it is worth asking the question whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for the Navy - or does it even matter?