Brookings has five research programs: Economic Studies,[6] Foreign Policy,[7] Governance Studies,[8] Global Economy and Development,[9] and Brookings Metro.[10] It also operated three international centers: in Doha, Qatar (Brookings Doha Center);[11]Beijing, China (Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy);[12] and New Delhi, India (Brookings India).[13] In 2020 and 2021, the Institution announced it was separating entirely from its centers in Doha and New Delhi, and transitioning its center in Beijing to an informal partnership with Tsinghua University, known as Brookings-Tsinghua China.[14]
The University of Pennsylvania's Global Go To Think Tank Index Report has named Brookings "Think Tank of the Year" and "Top Think Tank in the World" every year since 2008.[15] In September 2017, The Economist described Brookings as "perhaps America's most prestigious think-tank." Though the same article discussed threats to its institutional credibility via troubling donor relationships. [16]
Brookings states that its staff "represent diverse points of view" and describes itself as nonpartisan.[17] Media outlets have variously described Brookings as centrist,[18]conservative,[19]liberal,[20]center-right,[21] and center-left.[22] An academic analysis of congressional records from 1993 to 2002 found that Brookings was cited by conservative politicians almost as often as by liberal politicians, earning a score of 53 on a 1–100 scale, with 100 representing the most liberal score.[23] The same study found Brookings to be the most frequently cited think tank by U.S. media and politicians.[23]
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