On U.s. Think Tank's Role In The Decision-making Of U.s. Policy Toward China

As a kind of policy research institute and advisory body relatively independent of the political structure, think tanks are important participants in the process of policymaking. In Western countries, especially in the United States, think tanks have been a strong force that produces a great impact on policymaking and promotes the development of society. American think tanks are of such a high power and position that they can influence a series of important policymaking in politics, economy, military and foreign affairs in the United States. Therefore, they are called the "brain truster" for the American national security strategy, the "revolving door" for the exchange of scholars and government officials, the "incubator" for American diplomats, and the "amplifier" for academic research reports. Studying the American think tanks, on one hand, can help us find out the process of the deciding of the U.S. foreign strategy and the forming of its China-policy as well as the regular pattern of "changing from a scholar to a government official or vice versa"; on the other hand, allows us to draw on their successful experiences in order to enliven the Chinese think-tanks' thinking ability for policy-making, thus to be of some help for establishing the modern scientific system of leadership with Chinese characteristics and realizing the scientization and democratization in China's policymaking. This thesis attempts to expound the American think-tanks' role in forming the U.S. China-policy through a case study of RAND Corporation, hoping to provide some ideas for building and developing Chinese think tanks, for formulating more practical foreign policy, for properly handling the increasingly complicated international relationship, and thus maximizing China's national interest at the lowest costThis thesis falls into five parts. The first part is a survey of American think tanks' current situation. In this part, firstly, the origin of think tanks is introduced and the various definitions of think tanks are differentiated and analyzed; secondly, the think-tanks' development trend is forecasted on the basis of looking back into their evolvement; thirdly, American think tanks are summarized according to their functions into three types, i.e. academic think tanks (or university without students), government contract research think tanks, and policy advocacy think tanks; classified under three schools according to their political trends, i.e. liberalism , conservatism, and the middle -of-the-roaders between them.The second part is a general introduction of the American think tanks as well as asummary of the forming of the U.S. China-policy. The three functions that the American think tanks perform are briefly introduced as "to provide policy ideas", "to store up and offer qualified personnel", "to establish networks so as to influence the policy-makers and to educate and guide the public". Summing up various researchers' academic achievements, the author finds out there are the following five ways to exert this influence, (1) the think-tanks influence foreign policy making by offering qualified personnel to take offices in the government;(2) that the think tanks publish special periodicals, monographs or research reports on current or impending important international issues, is the most important way to influence the American foreign policy;(3) the think tanks maintain close relations with the Congress, the foreign policy-makers in the administration in order to influence the American foreign policy;(4) the think tanks invite famous foreign leaders and scholars to lecture them or to join their discussion or to participate in international cooperative research projects so as to influence the American foreign policy; and (5) the think tanks ,wiih the help of the mass media, create public opinion ,educate and guide the public, influencing the American foreign policy indirectly.The role that the American think tanks play in the U.S. China-policy making is also dealt with in the second part .The American think tanks produce policy recommendations and give them directly to the administration, helping to formulate effective and practical China-policy. Besides, they cultivate a large number of experts and scholars who know both the U.S. and China's actual conditions well enough to be capable of reasonably handling and regarding Sino-U.S. relations, and once they are appointed as government policy-makers, they will more effectively influence the government's policy-making. What's more, they emphasize the importance of Sino-U.S. relationship in all walks of life by means of activities such as publishing articles and books, making speeches and giving lectures, and thus they form opinion in favor of developing and improving Sino-U.S. relations to influence the public and the policy makers.In the third part the author briefly introduces RAND Corporation's development in the past and its current situation, looks into its operations management from its fund raising and administrating systems, and then summarizes its achievements.The fourth part mainly illustrates how RAND Corporation has influenced the U.S. administrative authorities in their China-policy making .The author sums up the characteristics of all the U.S. administrations' China-policies, then makes two lists of which one is of RAND...