History of Think Tanks

Since "think tank" is a term that has only found use since the 1950s, there is still some debate over what constitutes the first think tank. One candidate is the Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), founded in 1831 at the initiative of the Duke of Wellington. Another is the Fabian Society, which dates from 1884. The term think tank itself, however, was originally used in reference to organizations that offered military advice, most notably originally in 1946 as an offshoot of Douglas Aircraft and which became an independent corporation in 1948.

Until around 1910, there were no more than several dozen think tanks, mostly focused on offering non-partisan policy and military advice to the United States government, and generally with large staffs and research budgets. After 1930, the number of think tanks exploded, as many smaller new think tanks were formed to express various ideological views.

Until the 1940s, most think tanks were known only by the name of the institution. During the Second World War, think tanks were referred to as "brain boxes" after the slang term for the skull. The phrase "think tank" in wartime American slang referred to rooms in which strategists discussed war planning.