Brainstorming and Policy Making

Think Outside the Tank

Yes, I know what I just wrote, but…

I just read an interesting story in the South China Morning Post about an expected shift in US policy towards China, and that got me thinking.

It was Edward de Bono who formally coined the term ‘lateral thinking’, more often used in the form ‘thinking outside the box’. It’s hackneyed now but still captures the importance of the concept within a simplistic image. And that’s what came to mind as I continued to read:

Biden, who took office in January 2021, made it clear from the start that the “China threat” was a strategic policy priority, in a revival of the “pivot to Asia” under the Obama administration where he was vice-president. — SCMP

That paragraph is what first interested me (I’m a low-key China watcher), but then what really triggered my synapses was this:

Washington has basically completed forming consensus on what people think about China across political parties, think tanks, within the government and the public,” Fan told a seminar organised by the American Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an official think tank.- SCMP (ibid)

Note that phrase: ‘an official think tank’.

What is a think tank?

A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental organizations, but some are semi-autonomous agencies within government or are associated with particular political parties, businesses or the military. — Wikipedia

I first heard the term several decades ago and it interests me. There seems to me to be a basic stress between the purpose of a think tank and its organisation. Surely if you want to generate new ideas then it’s important to think outside the box and not be constrained in a tank with the sorts of people who almost certainly have a ton of baggage, positions to defend and an overbearing state apparatus monitoring the outputs (and probably listening-in to proceedings)?

The clue is in the word ‘Official’. To me that implies that thinking must stay within the boundaries of Party doctrine and ‘rightthink’.

Washington uses think tanks too

And in fact I think that the term was first coined there in relation to work done by the Rand Corporation.

Yes, DC used think tanks to arrive at its new Indo-Pacific (read China) policy.

And here’s where my own prejudice shows — my immediate reaction is that Western think tanks are unconstrained in their thinking, but Chinese not so. And Russia? I’m not so sure. They are a clever and inventive people but their thinking is, at least in an official capacity, bounded by dogma. We could argue these points all day I’m sure, but what I have stated is my immediate reaction.

You cannot think outside the box if there are constraints. That’s the whole point surely?

Maybe the box is an individual’s world and the tank is for sharing, sparking. stimulating new ideas as in brainstorming.

But thinking outside the box within the corsets of officialdom and dogma?

I’m just trying to conjure up an image of that, and I can’t.

But I have to add one final piece, as SCMP said:

In terms of stepping up diplomatic, military and economic resources, Fan said Washington had begun the process under then president Barack Obama’s 2012 “pivot to Asia” policy.

Pivot to Asia?

Sounds good. And then on 24 February 2022, Putin started his invasion of Ukraine.

As Harold MacMillan said when asked what would determine his government’s future: “Events, dear boy, events”.

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