Expertise and legitimacy in international relations: the case of progressive think tanks in the United States

Abstract

This article presents the preliminary proposal and research design of an ongoing study developed from my doctoral dissertation. It further explores a question introduced in the dissertation concerning the consolidation of progressive think tanks in the United States, with particular attention to organizations focused on international relations and foreign policy. More specifically, it examines how progressive foreign policy think tanks combined different strategies and approaches and how they differed in the ways they legitimized their expertise, addressed audiences, and defined their institutional objectives. Drawing on the broader universe of international relations institutes, the study compares organizations associated with the first institutional generation of U.S. think tanks with those that emerged during the wave of expansion and politicization that began in the 1970s. By circulating this work at an early stage, I seek to discuss its research design and incorporate criticism and suggestions into the next stages of the project.