Growing outside influence: Pompeo demands US think tanks to disclose foreign funding details

(Karachi) In wake of growing influence on US foreign policy, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged think tanks that seek to cooperate with the State Department to disclose any funding they receive from foreign governments and state-owned enterprises, local media reported.

While disclosure is not legally required, the department will ask think tanks to disclose funding details prominently on their websites they receive from foreign sources.

The @StateDept will henceforth request think tanks that accept money from foreign governments disclose this information to the public. The purpose is simple: to promote free and open dialogue, untainted by the machinations of authoritarian regimes.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) October 13, 2020

Pompeo said that the main purpose to ask think tanks declare funding is to protect the integrity of civil society institutions and to promote free and open dialogue.

As per an estimate, the US has more than 60 think tanks and the recent statement from Pompeo comes in wake of increasing outside influence on US foreign policy.

The US State Department, in particular, raised the concerns in light of the fact that some of the most influential think tanks in the United States have significant ties to China and Russia. Reportedly, both superpowers make efforts to exert influence over US foreign policy through lobbyists and think tanks.

A report published in New York Times in 2014 transpired that more than a dozen prominent research groups in America, which lawmakers, government officials and the media have relied on for independent policy analysis, had received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments. Those same think tanks had worked to push US government officials to adopt policies that aligned with the donors’ priorities, the report stated.

A recent report from the Center for International Policy identified more than $174 million in foreign funding that was voluntarily disclosed by top think tanks between 2014 and 2018, including the World Resources Institute, the Center for Global Development and the Brookings Institution.