Stockholm Network - Presentation

Presentation

The Stockholm Network was founded in 1997 by Helen Disney, a former journalist and deputy director of the Social Market Foundation. It began with a small group of like-minded think tanks after planning meetings in London and Stockholm. It initially had staff of three people including Sacha Kumaria and Nicole Gray Conchar, who had previously worked as a fundraiser for numerous think tanks including the Cato Institute and the International Policy Network (IPN).

In 2008 four think tanks, out of a membership of over 130, chose to leave the voluntary membership of the Network. They are the Institute of Economic Affairs the International Policy Network, the Hayek Institut and the Venezie Institute. In 2009 The Adam Smith Institute, also left and membership was withdrawn from the Libertarian Alliance and Nurses for Reform. New members include the Ohrid Institute in Macedonia, the Murray Rothbard Institute in Belgium, and Innoval in Germany.

The Stockholm Network has made efforts to be transparent regarding the sources of its funding, and has advocated that other think tanks should also list their funders on their websites. This would make accusations of potential conflicts of interest, or lobbying, which can be impossible to either corroborate or refute (given their often unattributed and/or unverified nature) less likely.

The Stockholm Network acts as a broad church of market-oriented think tanks with a variety of viewpoints—some of whom disagree on policy issues. The Stockholm Network has not attempted to deflect or ignore criticism of its activities, such as the recent debate over its Carbon Scenarios project, but has openly acknowledged it and sees this intellectual debate as an important part of the work of a think tank.