Think Tanks are the organizations specialized in the research of development, in which experts and scholars of various disciplines using data to analyze the required disciplines or fields, and come up with optimal solutions to problems. In the beginning, the establishment of Think Tanks was to give advice on policy-decision of foreign and domestic policies. With the development and needs of the society, the types of Think Tanks have been diversified. The United States was the first country to found Think Tanks in the world. With accurate and comprehensive analysis and judgment, the U.S. Think Tanks have extensive and in-depth contact with the ruling authorities and have deep influence in the public, influencing the major decisions of the U.S. politics, economy, society, military, diplomacy, science and technology. In the past three decades, China has made great achievements in economic development. Although the current situation of Chinese Think Tanks’ development ranks second in the world in terms of the total volume, the influence is still limited and the quality needs to be improved. At present, influential Think Tanks mainly gather in Beijing, Shanghai and other political and economic centers, most of which are comprehensive and mainly focus on national strategy. In the process of transformation to new types, the main problems of Think Tanks are inability to provide forward-looking and time-sensitive products, are lack of reasonable talent composition and internal division of labor, and are difficulty in forming an effective government, society and international influence. By comparing the development of think tanks between the United States and China, this paper proposes that there are significant differences in the construction and application of think tanks between the two countries. As a developing country, China has to keep improving its own think tanks, vigorously raise the number and scale of the private think tanks, and intensify their influence steadily so that a relatively mature think tank market can be developed gradually. Talents pool is the most important strategic resources in the 21st century. In order to make rapid economic development and cope with the international situation, almost every country is attaching a great importance to the training of the talents at home and the talent introduction from other countries. Relatively speaking, the construction and development of think tanks is crucial to the strategic talents reserve. Only by constantly filling the think tanks with more talents can China cope with the ever-changing international situation and have a better solution to the internal conflicts. Key words: Think Tanks; China; the United States; Sino-U.S. Relations.
The World of the United States Foreign Policy Elite: A Case Study of the U.S. Foreign Policy Think Tanks' Debates in the General Elections of 2004, 2008, and 2012
