Cassilis

The Institute for Public Policy Research

• The IPPR anticipates Gordon Brown's final report in the Byron Review of children and new technology (set up last year) with a report of its own highlighting how a generation of children are effectively being raised online. Their research suggests youngsters between 13 & 18 are spending 3 times as long as originally thought - in excess of 20 hours a week - using sites such as bebo, Myspace, Facebook and YouTube.

The Henry Jackson Society

• HJS revisit that tired old theme of 'radical Islam want a global caliphate / you can't negotiate with that / boost the voice of the moderates' - Des Browne, Jonathan Powell and Rowan Williams all get stints on the naughty step while Mark Steyn is lauded for his prescience so that should give you the flavour of the piece! Still worth a read though...
• A slightly more worthy piece from HSJ on a possible, if unlikely, beneficiary of the West's haste in recognising Kosovan independence - Cyprus's reunification. The resumption of talks to that end "has disproved the thesis that recognition of Kosovo would encourage separatism globally, and has in fact vindicated the decision to recognise."
• Then they're back at their belligerent best with a rallying call to the US to encourage NATO to move ahead on membership for aspirants like Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine - "Russia should not be led to believe that Ukraine or Georgia are still under the control of Moscow or that it can dictate NATO policies through threats."

Chatham House

• Great piece in their monthly mag 'The World Today' on how one of the first priorities of the next US President will be to re-order US relations with South America. Entitled "All the friends it can get" Dr Paulo Wrobel argues that 'after eight years of ineffective policies that can be seen as benign neglect, it is time to be more pro-active in Latin America'.
• Also from Chatham a couple of good articles marking the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. The first - "Sixty Years of Israel: Breaking the Logic" - looks at the emergence of Israel from the Palestinian perspective and how the 1967 Six Day war between Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan effectively set the context for current conflict. The second - "Israel at Sixty: Young Country, Same Old Conflict" - looks forward and suggests the anniversary is a good time to reflect and contemplate the directions the state might want to take in years to come.

• The Heritage Foundation projects that US Medicare and Social Security programs have over committed themselves to the tune of almost $43 trillion (yes, you did read that right). Since the burden from Social Security and Medicare will fall directly on younger generations it urges Congress to begin a serious overhaul of both programs.
• And the Cato Institute highlights the launch of AzadliqCiragi.org ("Lamp of Liberty" in Azerbaijani) - the latest addition to Cato's international programs promoting ideas of liberty in a language spoken by over twenty five million people, most of them in Iran.

Labels: Think Tank Roundups