最后则是市场营销。没有高效的市场营销，就没有思想库舆论影响力的最大化。美国思想库作为生产舆论和思想的工厂，其目标受众是政府决策者和社会公众。近20多年来，随着思想库数量的蓬勃发展和信息传播的全球化，美国思想库逐渐加强传播其研究成果的力度，采取各种方式和渠道影响舆论和政策。具体而言，美国思想库采取的主要传播方式有人际传播、组织传播和大众传播。在大多数情况下，三种传播方式都是同时采用，互为补充和促进。人际传播有助于思想库的研究成果直接影响决策者，组织传播和大众传播担负着议程设置和塑造公共舆论的作用，从而间接影响决策者。
所谓人际传播方式主要是指美国思想库在传播思想的过程中依靠个人关系网。“旋转门”机制使得人际传播方式得以发挥重要的作用。组织传播是美国思想库传播其研究成果的另一个重要方式。他们通常就热点外交政策问题举办大型的公开会议，邀请专家进行讨论，或者宣布研究成果。除此之外，思想库还会举办各种中小型的会议，受众仅限于被邀请的特定人士，会议内容不对公众开放。美国思想库在组织传播中采取的另一个方式就是举办各种短期的培训项目。通过组织传播，美国思想库为社会公众、决策者、专业人士构建了一个意见交流的平台，同时也为决策者提供了一个接受外交政策教育的基地。
在美国思想库的早期发展阶段，大众传播模式一直是被忽视的，自1960年代以来，随着信息传播技术的发展、全球化趋势和思想库之间竞争的加剧，各大思想库都加强了对大众传播模式的重视。目前，美国思想库在其管理结构中，大都设有专门负责信息传播的部门，所有的思想库都有自己专门的网站。美国思想库借助大众传播模式可以设置政治议程，塑造公共舆论，进而影响到决策者，最终影响到外交政策。大众传播模式又可分为纸媒介、电子媒介、网络媒介三种渠道，不同的渠道承担不同的作用。这三种媒介渠道中，网络媒介以其信息传播的快捷、互动、全球化成为美国思想库众多传播渠道中的新宠，是美国思想库全球战略中的重要一环。通过网络媒体，全球网络用户都可以了解美国思想库对外交政策的分析，从而潜移默化地在全球范围内构建美国的软实力。在美国思想库的信息传播中，纸媒介、电子媒介和网络媒介也是同样各具优劣，三种媒介渠道共同承担着设置议程、引导舆论的作用，纸媒介的舆论影响力更侧重长期性，电子媒介在舆论的形成中注重放大和引导，而网络媒介侧重于互动和全球性。
诚然，美国思想库的舆论影响力的产生依赖于其生存的特定的国情，中国智库不可能也没有必要照搬美国模式。但是，我们可以从中得到启示和借鉴，从而寻找到一条实现中国思想库舆论影响力的现实途径。目前，中国思想库在数量上应该说与美国不相上下，但是需要在创新能力上下功夫，也需要提高自己的国际话语权。
可以考虑，在市场环境的层面，中国政府需要为思想库的发展创造适宜的市场环境，让民间智库也得到适宜的发展，从而在一定程度上形成思想创新的氛围与市场。可以考虑建立民间政策咨询机制，为思想库的生存发展创造更多的空间；其次，政府在法律、政策和资金上要对思想库给予大力的扶持，鼓励中国基金会的发展，鼓励企业和个人对政策研究的捐助；第三，政府要提高公众对思想库的认识，并且要引导社会公众对思想库所表达的不同观点的宽容度。
就产品质量而言，中国思想库首先要进行大规模的机构改革，建立高效的运行机制，在内部机构设置上，要明确思想库以研究部门为核心，其余各部门围绕研究，服务于研究部门，为学者创造良好的研究环境；为了保证研究的相对独立性，在资金来源上，除了政府资金外，要引进基金会、企业和个人资金，并确保资金来源不影响研究过程和结果；在研究人员设置上，要改变原有的单一学术背景，大胆启用不同年龄、背景的综合型人才，因为思想库所从事的是事关现实决策的研究。另外，中国高级别的官方智库，要充分意识到自己的渠道优势，要加强与其他研究机构的合作，善于整合研究资源。
在市场营销层面，中国思想库要建立完善、多层次的信息传播机制，让思想库的研究成果实现影响力的最大化。思想库不仅仅是作为政府智囊而存在的，其存在的很大一部分价值在于培养社会公众合理有序的政策参与能力。除此之外思想库的市场营销不仅要着眼于本国，还要着眼于世界，要充分意识到网络媒体的国际传播意义和价值。
而今，大国崛起，其思想库的发展和舆论影响力不容滞后。中国思想库要真正成长为具有国际影响力的大国智库，尽管路还很长，但是已经在路上。
王莉丽
2010年初冬于北京昆玉河畔
Chinese Think Tanks Achieved Global Influence.
（Chinese Think Tanks Achieved Global Influence.
How Far Still Ahead？
Wang Lili
In July 2009， China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) ，the "highest level Think Tank in China"， hosted the “Global Think Tank Sum-mit" in Beijing. It was unprecedented both in terms of the high level of the partici-pators and the large scale of this summit. Yet what I am concern is， which wayChinese Think Tank should go after this submit.
A concept that we need to keep in mind is： a real Think Tank should focus onpolicy research and aim at influencing the pubic opinion and the government poli-cy. That is to say， the core competence of a Think Tank is its power of innovationand its force of influence， rather than its scale or level. To the highest level Chi-nese Think Tank， an obvious advantage is the accessible channel for its voice tothe high-level government officials， since it has gathered plenty of senior govern-ment officials both retired and incumbent. But lack of high quality innovativethoughts & ideas， its influence will be significantly weakened. The innovationcompetence of a Think Tank stems from a set of well-arranged and scientific oper-ation mechanism.
There are approximately 5465 Think Tanks over the world， 1777 0f which arelocated in the United States. In China Mainland there are only 74 Think Tankswhich have been admitted by American scholars. Yet according to the statistics byChinese scholars， there are over 2000 Think Tanks in China now-that means， China has exceeded US in terms of the quantity of Think Tank. Let"s temporarily ignore why there is such a large statistic gap. One thing we cannot deny is that， theAmerican Think Tank， born at the beginning of the 20th century， has grown upinto a "idea market" which is the most developed in the world and a well-organizedoperation mechanism. As a kind of strong "Soft Power"， American Think Tankhas become an important driving-force to influence American public policy & so-cial ethos. In recent years， utilizing internet and frequent communications be-tween scholars， American Think Tank has fully expanded its global influence.
Top-tier Think Tanks of the States， like the Brookings Institution， the CarnegieEndowment for International Peace， have all set up their offices in Beijing， tryingto exert its influence on Chinese policy making and public opinions. While on theother side， Chinese Think Tanks， though large in number， still lag far behindtheir US counterparts in terms of public opinion influence， innovation competenceas well as global vision. Most of the Think Tanks in China neither attract muchattention from government decision makers， nor known by the general public.
That"s the main reason why there are so big a discrepancy in the number of Chinese Think Tanks between Chinese statistics & US statistics， which is above-mentioned.
Of course， the public influence of American Think Tanks was stemmed fromits specific political & economical background and cultural soil. It is both impossi-ble and unnecessary of us to simply copy the American paradigm. Yet we couldget inspirations from them and find a realistic way to realize the public influence ofChinese Think Tanks.
From the Economics point of view， as an economic entity competing in themarket of thought， American Think Tanks produce "idea" as its main product，and aim at policy makers and groups of people that could exert influence on policymaking as its target consumers. The reasons why American Think Tanks couldexert such a great influence to general public could be summarized as 4 factors： favorable market environment， adequate market demand， high quality products andcomprehensive marketing strategies.
Market EnvironmentA favorable market environment， including political， economical and culturalenvironment， is the soil to give birth to the living， development and prosperity ofAmerican Think Tanks.
