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The Think Tank Post
Wednesday, 7 October 2026

What the world's policy institutions are actually arguing about.

Think tanks publish a great deal of serious work. Where it is indexed well it sits behind a library subscription.

This is the free version. Who published what, on which question, with a link straight to them.

5,666 publications · 600 institutions

IOpen questions

All questions →

One question, several institutions, their own words and a link to each. A search over document counts cannot tell you who disagrees with whom.

01Alliances and deterrence

Is NATO's deterrent still credible against Russia?

Deterrence works only if it is believed. The disagreement runs from force posture on the eastern flank to whether Article 5 would be invoked at all, and institutions reach different conclusions from much the same evidence.

26 institutions · 40 publications

02Industrial policy and supply chains

Is economic decoupling from China achievable?

De-risking, friendshoring and decoupling describe different ambitions and get used interchangeably. Institutions disagree on which parts of the relationship can actually be unwound, and what it would cost to try.

26 institutions · 40 publications

03Trade policy and agreements

Are tariffs a legitimate instrument of industrial policy?

Tariffs returned to mainstream economic policy faster than the literature defending them. The argument is whether they build domestic capacity or simply tax the people they are meant to protect.

23 institutions · 40 publications

04Security and defence

Can Europe defend itself without the United States?

European defence has rested on American capability for seventy years. The argument now is about how much of it Europe could replace, how quickly, and at what cost. Institutions differ on whether the gap is money, industrial capacity, or command and control.

20 institutions · 40 publications

05Energy security and resources

What should replace Russian gas in Europe?

Europe replaced Russian pipeline gas faster than almost anyone forecast. What it should build instead is still open: LNG terminals, renewables and storage, demand reduction, or nuclear, each with a different lock-in.

18 institutions · 35 publications

06Carbon pricing and borders

Is a carbon border tax climate policy or protectionism?

Border carbon adjustment is defended as the only way to price emissions without exporting them, and attacked as a tariff with a green label. The trade institutions and the climate institutions do not read it the same way.

14 institutions · 26 publications

07Cyber and emerging military technology

What role should AI play in military decisions?

Autonomy in targeting and command is moving faster than the doctrine governing it. The split is between those treating it as a capability race and those treating it as an arms-control problem.

13 institutions · 22 publications

08Nuclear energy

Does the energy transition need new nuclear power?

Firm low-carbon power is the part of a decarbonised grid nobody has cheaply solved. Some institutions treat new nuclear as unavoidable, others as the most expensive way to buy capacity that storage will provide sooner.

12 institutions · 18 publications

IIThree topics, worldwide

Worldwide in ambition. In this first version we cover three topics: security and defence, energy and climate, and international economics and trade.