European Think Tanks as Instruments of Public Diplomacy: 'Bridges' between Knowledge and Foreign Policy in the International Debate of Ideas

This paper examines the role of knowledge produced and disseminated by European think tanks (TTs) in the diplomatic efforts of the European Union (EU) and European and non-European countries. It builds on Bourdieu’s field theory and concept of capital as an analytical framework and is based on data from EU and national official documents, website materials and semi-structured interviews with representatives of TTs from Brussels, as well as from France, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, their networks and the EU institutions. The paper argues that the EU institutions provide financial support for TTs in order to obtain political capital in form of diplomatic influence. The European Commission (EC) mobilises TT academic capital funding their educational activities in the fields of public administration, diplomacy and foreign affairs, which play the role of intellectual “soft power” by training current and future policy-makers in Europe and beyond as potential allies in competition with other countries. Taking into account the specificity of the EU public sphere characterised by the shortage of outreach mass media and the increasing movement of the policy debate online the EC tries to improve its capacity to shape public opinion at the transnational level by using TT publicity capital in its communication activities via new media platforms, distinguished by direct access to wider audiences different from those targeted by traditional media. The EC benefits from TT social capital encouraging them to create transnational networks regarded as contributing to the promotion of integration within the EU, but also to building relations with the candidate countries and strengthening its position in multilateral negotiations. This paper also reveals the opposite trend consisting in the funding of European TTs, especially established in Brussels by governments within and outside the EU in order to influence EU institutions. Thus, this paper states the link between the diplomatic influence of national and regional states and the capacity of TTs to exert influence in the international debate of ideas.