“Think Tanks in American Politics : A Catalyst for Political Movements” (Tokyo University Press, 2017)
Tomoyuki Miyata (Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Teikyo University)
It is a great honor to receive the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. I would like to thank the board of directors, selection committee, and all those that supported the writing and publishing of the book. The greatest objective of Think Tanks in American Politics: A Catalyst for Political Movements is to define the influence think tanks have on U.S. politics. It is commonly said that U.S. think tanks have great influence on political decisions. However, even in the U.S., few academic research verifies the influence of thinks tanks on U.S. politics. When the topic of research is difficult to verify objectively, such as think tanks, few political scientists actively research the topic. However, it is undeniable that think tanks play a key role in U.S. politics, which indicates that research in this field is necessary. Therefore, this study uses a more flexible approach by focusing on the relationship between the development of policy ideas and conservative think tanks. The book finds three key influences of think tanks: short-term influence of involvement in policymaking, mid-term influence of involvement in setting agendas, and long-term influence of involvement of human resources. There is still much more to be discovered and verified other than research on how think tanks influence U.S. politics. One example is U.S. think tanks and their longstanding relationship with the foreign community. It is with profound gratitude for this prize that I hope to move forward on advancing research in this area.
Profile
Tomoyuki Miyata has been a Lecturer at Teikyo University since 2016. Before joining Teikyo University, he was a Researcher at the Embassy of Japan in the U.S. (2007-2010), Research Associate at Center for Pacific and American Studies, the University of Tokyo (2010-2013), and Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (2014-2015). He received his Ph.D. in Political Science (2015) from Keio University. His major field of study is American Politics.
