In the 1990s, the program became increasingly global as a result of the political and economic transformation that took place in Central and Eastern Europe.
[6] R. Kent Weaver[7] of the Brookings Institution and James McGann of the Foreign Policy Research Institute were asked to help conceptualize what became the Global Development Network, a World Bank sponsored conference in Barcelona, Spain.
[8] This resulted in the publication Think Tanks and Civil Societies: Catalysts for Ideas and Action in 2000.
[10] However, this method of the study and assessment of policy institutes has been criticized by researchers such as Enrique Mendizabal and Goran Buldioski, Director of the Think Tank Fund, assisted by the Open Society Institute.
[11][12] In 2018, this Index listed US the country with the largest number of Think Tanks (1871), followed by India (509), China (507), UK (321), Argentina (227), Germany (218), Russia (215), France (203), Japan (128), Italy (114), Brazil (103), Canada (100), South Africa (93).