"End of Transition" - Finding this on Find Policy

Today a friend asked on whether post-Soviet transition was over. I thought it was, for a number of reasons. He then asked whether I had any reference, to substantiate the point. There will be plenty of scholarly references, but in addition, it's good to see what think tanks say. If the argument has been made in ways that are cogent for policy makers, this is a great point of reference.


And indeed, right there a result we can immediately use, from the Carnegie Endowment.  That's why Find Policy can be a great resource, when you are looking for quality sources on important issues. 

Any terms you are looking for? Try a search: www.findpolicy.org
 

Attack in South-East Turkey | Access to Analysis

With the bomb attack in Suruc in South-East Turkey, the focus is on the complex relationship that Turkey has with the Syrian civil war, and also with its own Kurdish population that is affected by the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq. Here, too, Find Policy gives fast access to expertise. On the Foreign Policy search page, the right search terms bring diverse results.

Toggling the date gives you the newest results. Additionally, the name of the town Suruc could have added current commentary.

Now you might be interested in experts on Kurdistan as well, potentially to reach out to them for interviews. Four US experts, there also is a dedicated search page. Type in "Kurdish" and you'll see some of the experts in leading US think tanks. (A similar search for UK experts – whose web biographies alas are less detailed – returns only one result.)

To do your own search on foreign policy, go here, and on US experts right here.

#IranDeal – Getting the Best Think Tank Analysis

How do you get the newest and best research from think tanks? This is of particular interest when situations are evolving quickly, such as with the financial crisis in Greece, or yesterday's deal with Iran.

For these occasions, too, Find Policy can get your great results, quickly. Go to the search page focusing on leading Foreign Policy think tanks, and start your search. Two simple tricks will get you the best results.

First, add one current hotspot as a negative search term, by putting a minus-sign in front of it. So here we added -Greece, to make sure we don't just get the daily news roundup. Then, in the search results, toggle to sort by Date.

#IranDeal

And thus you get great results. From the Wilson Center, from the Council for Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment, and so on. Even with Twitter, this is probably the single fastest way you can get quality research at a glance.

To try your own search, go to the Foreign Policy search page.

Michael Lewis, IEX, and search

Michael Lewis last week wrote an interesting and entertaining piece on the occupational hazard of a Wall Street career. If you have not seen it, it is here. 

Lewis points out that Wall Street, while eager to disrupt other industries, is not so pleased to be disrupted itself. In particular, he suggests that Wall Street is fighting a new kind of stock market, IEX, that would make the stock market more effective and efficient, but less lucrative for Wall Street banks. 

So what do think tanks have to say on this? Are they taking sides on the issue? Find Policy shows that the issue is not yet mainstream there, with only three results. 

Search results for IEX

Yet the piece it finds is useful, with a lively debate in the comments. To try this search yourself, head over here. 

 

Israel, Gaza and International Think Tanks

With the conflict in Gaza, media and social networks offer salient images and diverse viewpoints. What do think thanks have to say on the issue? Two different search pages may be relevant.

One page focuses specifically on think tanks in Israel. It contains significant amount of information on Gaza (though also old pages), and then up-to-date analysis on issues such as the Iron Dome system that is used to intercept missiles from Gaza. 

Search results for "iron dome"

The perspective from within Israel also offers in-depth analysis on Hamas and on the tunnels. 

The Foreign Policy search page offers an international perspective on these issues. To get the most recent analysis, click the "Date" button at the top right. 

Search results for "Gaza"

To check out the newest, go to Israel page and to the search for leading foreign policy think tanks. 

 

Georgia Search Page Now Online

If you are interested in Georgia, you may find our new search page specifically dedicated to the country useful. As always, the search page focuses on the leading research organizations in the country that regularly publish material. We have included some organizations that are not typical think tanks, such as Transparency International Georgia, since it does a lot of policy research, and the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, since GYLA also tracks many of the key developments. 

The search is as good as the websites, and faster and more focused than going through them one by one. Note that some organizations have reorganized their websites recently, making old information harder to track. Ideally, organizations should make sure that their older publications remain accessible, but that is not something we can influence.

How can you use this search page? Let's say you want to look up what organizations have written on Samegrelo. Go to the search page, and enter the query. 

Choose specific search terms for optimal results. 

As the screenshot shows, you receive a good number of interesting results. CRRC comes up a fair amount, not because we favor it, but because its blog now has more than 400 entries, making it more visible for search engines, even if the blog entries themselves are often short. 

Any suggestions to make? Head over to the search page, look for your favorite issue (or your own name), and let us know. 

www.findpolicy.org/georgia