One key function of the Policy Planning Staff is to act as the State Department's liaison to the think tank community. Below are listed, in alphabetical order, links to a number of think tanks and research institutions whose work on all aspects of foreign policy, we at Policy Planning have found particularly useful. However, the inclusion of these links does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the U.S. State Department of any Website, product, service, or opinion found on any of these sites.

• American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
• American Foreign Policy Council
• Arms Control Association
• Asia Society
• Aspen Institute
• Atlantic Council of the United States
• The Brookings Institution
• Canadian Institute of International Affairs
• Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies
• Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• The Cato Institute
• Center for Defense Information
• Center for Global Development
• Center for Global Security Research
• Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
• Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Center for the Study of Intelligence
• Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (Center for International Studies and Research)
• Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute
• Clingendael (Netherlands Institutes of International Relations)
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Auswaertige Politik (German Council on Foreign Relations)
• East-West Institute
• Eisenhower Institute
• Federation of American Scientists
• Foreign Policy Association
• Foreign Policy Research Institute
• Freedom House
• German Marshall Fund of the United States
• Henry L. Stimson Center
• The Heritage Foundation
• Hudson Institute
• Institut Francais des Relations Internationales (French Institute of International Relations)
• Institute for International Economics
• Institute for Policy Studies
• Inter-American Dialogue
• International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
• International Crisis Group
• International Institute for Strategic Studies
• International Peace Academy
• Lexington Institute
• Middle East Media Research Institute
• National Bureau of Asian Research
• National Defense University
• Naval War College
• New America Foundation
• Nixon Center
• Pacific Council on International Policy
• RAND
• Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)
• Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs)
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
• Strategic Studies Institute, Army War College
• Washington Institute for Near East Policy
• Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
• World Economic Forum
• World Policy Institute
• United States Institute of Peace