The Role of Think Tanks and Technical Experts in Foreign and Security Policy

This international conference is part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Rome's Istituto Affari Internazionali. Taking IAI's role as a starting point, we wish to look more carefully at the think tank model and its role. The IAI case study allows us to illustrate both the culture promoting model and the technical expertise model which plays a direct role in advising and shaping government policy. Starting from the analysis of think tanks, we can broaden our overview to include the role of experts in foreign and security policy in an attempt to pinpoint the common factors and specific characteristics connected with the role of experts