On the morning of May 5, 2017, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Shanghai Office Director Tim Wenniges was invited to give a lecture on the theme of “Think Tanks in Germany - Role, Financing and Public Appearance” at Shanghai Academy. Executive Vice President Wen Xueguo of Shanghai Academy presided over the event.

At the lecture, Mr. Wenniges began by posing the question “what is a think tank?” and gave a definition of the term “think tank” to explain their missions and major fund sources. He then classified the think tanks in Germany according to their public appearance, to analyze the key factors affecting their development. Later, Mr. Wenniges elaborated the think tanks in Germany in the field of foreign policy studies, peace research, and economy, and the general situation and public appearance of think tanks of major German political parties. Finally, he put forward his own views on how think tanks should be built.

Mr. Wenniges noted that, based on their public appearance, German think tanks could be classified into five categories, respectively; academy think tank, advocacy think tank, party think tank, contract research think tank, and legacy think tank. However, the think tanks could be divided into six categories according to their fund sources, respectively; government-affiliated, quasi-governmental, political party-affiliated, quasi-independent, autonomous & independent, and university-affiliated. He believed that the think tanks of a country were inseparable from its political system and environment, thus, one country couldn’t copy the models of other countries in building its own think tanks.

According to Mr. Wenniges, think tanks should act as a link between researchers and decision makers, to provide the government with decision-making consultation, and the public and media with thought interpretation; and should keep close ties with the government, but not become a government sector. The think tanks must have a clear positioning on their research fields, product forms and public appearance, and then offer high-quality understandable consulting services according to their positioning and the requirements of their clients.

(Text by Zhao Xueyan, Photo by Xiang Jinmei)