Think Tanks and the Internet

As think tanks try to push policy making in their desired direction in such diverse fields as health, education, taxation, regulation and national security it is not surprising, that also the Internet has entered their issue list:

RAND, a center-right U.S. think tank not only argues for the usage of certain guidelines concerning the use of e-mail, but has also released a research report - sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense - entitled "Strategic Information Warfare: A New Face of War". In November 1999 RAND has furthermore launched a co-operation with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) aimed at combating the threat of cybercrime. ICCs practical expertise and RANDs research and analytical capacities shall aid at finding solutions to fight hackers, industrial spies, and other criminals who may exploit the Internet to attack commercial and public-sector systems.

Another of the big players in the elite of think tanks, the conservative Washington D.C. based Cato Institute quite surprisingly has started to defend human rights in Cyberspace. Jonathan D. Wallace' "Nameless in Cyberspace: Anonymity on the Internet." sees the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of speech and expression in the United States under attack by proposals to limit or restrict the use of anonymity on the Internet.

Yet another conservative think tank, the U.S. based Center for Strategic and International Studies in June 1999 has initiated a Conference (Global Information Infrastructure Commission) to accelerate the development of E-Commerce in India. Among the Conferences participants were not only government representatives from India and the United States, but also the CEO of Global TeleSystems Group Inc., the vice chairman of Fujitsu and the executive president of Siemens A.G., as well as the World Bank and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

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Major U.S. Think Tanks: Cato Institute

Founded in 1977, the institute is named for Cato's Letters, libertarian pamphlets that were widely read in the American Colonies since the early 18th century and played a major role in laying the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. Cato is a public policy research foundation seeking to "broaden the parameters of public policy debate" to allow consideration of more options that are consistent with the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and a special focus on deregulation issues.

In recent years, the Cato Institute has become one of the most cited and quoted think tanks in the U.S. news media, while also becoming a key resource for Republican leaders. Catos board of directors not only includes John C. Malone - president and CEO of Tele-Communicaitons Inc. (TCI), the largest cable operator in the United States - but, since autumn 1997, also media titan Rupert Murdoch.

Official Organizational Status: Independent Institute

Political Orientation: U.S. Conservative/Libertarian

Scope/Research Areas: Catos research areas include development studies, science and technology, economic issues, health and welfare, foreign relations and diplomacy. Priority issues are Social Security privatization, fundamental tax reform, limited constitutional government, free trade and term limits. Recent publications include: Kelley, David A.: Life of One's Own. Individual Rights and the Welfare State. (1998). Ferrara, P.J. and M. D. Tanner: A New Deal for Social Security. (1998).

Funding Sources: 1998 Budget US$ 11 million. Corporate and private donations (especially from corporations and executives in the highly regulated industries of financial services, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals industries) and sales of publications.

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Major U.S. Think Tanks: Heritage Foundation

Heritage was started to counter what it perceived as the liberal intellectual climate of Washington in the 1970s. The Heritage Foundations mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. Heritage pursues this mission by performing research addressing key policy issues and effectively marketing these findings to its primary audiences: members of Congress, key congressional staff, policymakers in the executive branch, the nation's news media, and the academic and policy communities.

Official Organizational Status: Independent research and educational institute.

Political Orientation: U.S. Conservative

Scope/Research Areas: The Heritage Foundation's research areas include: economic issues, health and welfare, education, culture and religion, security and defense, foreign policy and international relations/institutions. Priority is given to issues, such as: Social Security reform, fundamental tax reform, livable cities, ballistic missile defense, education reform, domestic and economic policy and foreign and defense policy. Recent publications include: Feulner, Edwin J.: The March of Freedom. (1998). Holmes, K. et.al.: 1999 Index of Economic Freedom. (1998).

Funding Sources: 1998 Budget: US$ 26 million. Private donations (47 %), foundations (21 %), investment income (21 %), corporate donations (4 %). Among others US$ 1 million from the Korea Foundation - funded by South Korea's foreign ministry.

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The Institute of Economic Affairs

One of the most impressive examples of the dissemination of ideology through educational activities has been performed by the UK- based Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), founded in 1955. Dedicated to the idea of free-markets the IEA from the beginning saw the "education" of the public as a key element in the distribution of their ideology. "The philosophy of the market economy must be widely accepted; this requires a large programme of education ..."

Aiming at the wide acceptance of their ideas, the IEA undertook an extensive publishing program with the objective to make the fairly complex concepts of economic liberalism and monetarism available to a student or sixth-form audience. In the 1960s IEA papers normally reached the hands of students through the university Conservative Associations.

The work that the IEA did in this field reaped a rich harvest during the 1970s and 1980s, as many of the younger political activists who staffed the various free-market think-tanks, such as the Center for Policy Studies, the Freedom Association an the Selsdon Group, received their education from the IEA. Especially at St. Andrews university, where Ralph Harris, the first director of the IEA, had been a lecturer, the IEA ideas had a strong impact. St. Andrews over the years did not only produce a generation of free-market Conservative MPs (Member of Parliament), but also influenced former St. Andrews students like Stuart and Eamonn Butler and Madsen Pirie, who went to set up the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) in London in 1976.

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Fleishman-Hillard

Fleishman-Hillard, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is the world's fifth largest public relations agency, with offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and affiliates in Latin America. Its 1998 net fees accounted for US$ 160,692,000.

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Binary number system

In mathematics, the term binary number system refers to a positional numeral system employing 2 as the base and requiring only two different symbols, 0 and 1. The importance of the binary system to information theory and computer technology derives mainly from the compact and reliable manner in which data can be represented in electromechanical devices with two states--such as "on-off," "open-closed," or "go-no go."

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Enigma Machine

The Enigma Encryption Machine was famous for its insecurities as for the security that it gave to German ciphers. It was broken, first by the Poles in the 1930s, then by the British in World War II.

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