Two Grantees Top List of Best North American Think Tanks

Two of Ploughshares Fund’s longtime partners and grantees, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Brookings Institution won commendation this week in the British magazine The Prospect’s 2012 Think Tank of the Year Award.

The Carnegie Endowment took top honors as the North American Think Tank of the Year. Judges found its recent work on the Middle East “outstanding.” They also gave special recognition to the recently published book “The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: A Memoir,” by another Ploughshares Fund grantee and former Iranian nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian.

Another grantee, Brookings Institution, won special commendation for “success in grappling with “the big picture” and for work in combatting anti-Chinese sentiment in Congress.” In our opinion, among those big picture issues must be their outstanding work on U.S-Russian arms control efforts, led by former Ambassador Stephen Pifer. Few have been stronger than Brookings in helping lay the groundwork for further arms reductions in the world’s two largest nuclear stockpiles.

This is the 12th year of the Prospect awards, intended to recognize the groups who are leading global public debate. The elite panel of judges included a former editor of the Financial Times and the current chief executive of Oxford Analytica. Criteria for the award includes originality and rigor of research, selection of topics of importance and influence.

We’ve long been convinced that both the Carnegie Endowment and the Brookings Institution are among the top organizations in the country, so we’re pleased to see them get well-deserved recognition.