Asia Society Policy Institute Ranked Among World’s Best Think Tanks for Third Consecutive Year

NEW YORK, January 30, 2018 — The Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), launched in 2014, is again ranked among the world’s best think tanks, according to the "2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index."

ASPI ranks among the top U.S. think tanks (#49 out of nearly 1,900 U.S.-based institutes), the top foreign policy think tanks worldwide (#92), and the top independent think tanks worldwide (#90)—those with "significant independence from any one interest group or donor and autonomous in its operation and funding from government."

ASPI also ranks 117 in the list of the world's top think tanks out of over 6,500 institutions considered, 9 positions higher than in last year’s index.

Prepared by the University of Pennsylvania's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP), the annual index is the authoritative ranking of the world's top think tanks and is based on a global survey of nearly 3,700 journalists, policymakers, think tank leaders, and public and private donors. TTCSP has ranked think tanks since 2006, in response to requests from donors, government officials, journalists, and scholars.

ASPI and TTCSP will host the New York launch of the 2017 report this evening. The launch will be accompanied by a discussion on the role think tanks play in shaping policy and encouraging intellectually rigorous and fact-based debate during this current era of digital disruption and "fake news." Speakers in the panel include Caroline Atkinson, Chief Policy Adviser at Google; Stephen Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; and Kevin Rudd, President of ASPI. Susan Chira, Senior Correspondent and Editor at The New York Times will moderate the conversation.

With a problem-solving mandate, ASPI tackles major policy challenges confronting the Asia-Pacific in security, prosperity, sustainability, and the development of common norms and values for the region. ASPI is led by Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia, and Vice President Wendy Cutler, former U.S. Acting Deputy Trade Representative.