First Ever National Think Tank Conference Held to Define Contours of National Security Interests, Common Research Agendas

October 22, 2013

New Delhi: In a first of its kind meeting, the top brass of prominent think tanks in India came together to define the contours of national security interests and common research agendas for the future. The meet held at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, which saw participation from institutions across the country was also attended by policy practitioners from the Ministry of External Affairs.

It reiterated the need for stronger role for think tanks in policy making and pressed for greater exchange of ideas between researchers and practitioners to ensure furthering of India’s security objectives.

The discussion were threefold: focusing on national security imperatives, future agendas for research and synergy as also structural constraints that weigh down on intellectual institutions.

There was a consensus that think tanks could play a very influential role in pushing the frontiers of national discourse on policy agendas. National Security Interests need to be looked at as vital and cannot be conflated with nationalism. The approach needs to be broad to allow a vibrancy of ideas on issues ranging from governance, institution building, rule of law, education, economic policy and the core concept of national security.

A push was made for an interdisciplinary approach to future research agendas which would include studies on the increasing impact of domestic politics on foreign policy, deep ocean studies and the new resource wars, space and cyber security challenges, media and nationalism, regional armed conflicts etc.

A very constructive discussion on synergy between think tanks at national and regional levels focused on aspects of resource sharing, exchange of experts, joint research projects and developing deeper linkages with academia. This initiative was a product of a prior informal meeting of a network of directors and it was decided that calendars would be synchronised in the future to encourage more interactions.

Finally it was also recognised that think tanks have to battle issues of funding crunches as well as talent scarcity, despite wanting to invest in research of world class quality. Additionally the perception of a reluctance at the official level to include research expertise on policy formulation apart from a few projects was seen as a setback.

Overall the discussion was the coming together of the best minds of the country to course correct as well as take steps to build public morale and restore confidence in the Idea of India.