Can the major global policy think-tanks of the world work together to address the challenges facing humanity? From July 14-17, the East West Institute convened more than a dozen thinktanks from Beijing to Brasilia to address this timely question. The think-tank leaders gathered in Oxford, England, where they developed an eight-point plan for collaborative action and agreed to form a “Global Leadership Consortium” to implement this plan.

Even before the meeting began, a series of teleconferences between the participants made clear that think-tanks around the world were facing a similar challenge of “going global.” For this reason, Mark Gerzon and Dale Pfeifer, who coordinated EWI’s global leadership programs, encouraged EWI to explore convening a worldwide think-tank network. The goal of the GLC is to serve as a learning and action network of solutionsoriented leaders and their institutions to address the new reality that no single nation — and no single think-tank — can be an effective global problem-solver. The difference between a single institute undertaking this effort versus a network of well-established and highly respected partners doing so, may ultimately make the difference between success and failure.