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International Policy Network

{{Short description|Former neoliberal think tank}}

{{About|the neoliberal think tank International Policy Network|the international centre-left think tank|Policy Network}}

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{{Primary sources|date=April 2009}}

{{More citations needed|date=April 2009}}

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{{Infobox organization

| name = International Policy Network

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| abbreviation = IPN

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| formation = 1971

| founder = Sir Antony Fisher

| dissolved = 2011

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| type = Non-partisan, non-profit think tank (UK charity)

| status = Defunct

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| location = London

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| subsidiaries = The Freedom to Trade Campaign

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| formerly = The International Institute for Economic Research
The Atlas Economic Research Foundation (UK)

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The International Policy Network (IPN) was a neoliberal think tank based in the City of London, founded 1971, and closed in September 2011. The think tank said it was a non-partisan, non-profit organization, although critics argued that it was a "corporate-funded campaigning group".{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/27/post437/print | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=George | last=Monbiot | title=Smoke in our eyes | date=27 September 2006}} IPN ran campaigns on issues such as trade, development, healthcare and the environment. IPN's campaigns were pro-free market and in line with neoliberal policies, and also expressed climate change sceptic views.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-sceptic-think-tank-shuts-down-2300529.html |title=Climate change sceptic think tank shuts down|accessdate=16 January 2014|work=The Independent|date=24 May 2012}}

Vision

According to its website, "IPN aims to empower individuals and promote respect for people and property in order to eliminate poverty, improve human health and protect the environment. IPN promotes public awareness of the importance of this vision for all people, both rich and poor. IPN seeks to achieve its vision by promoting the role of market institutions in certain key international policy debates: sustainable development, health, and globalisation and trade. IPN works with academics, think tanks, journalists and policymakers on every continent."

History

IPN was founded as a UK charity by Sir Antony Fisher in 1971. The mission of this body is to "Promote the advancement of learning by research into economic and political science and the publication of such research". The charity's original name was The International Institute for Economic Research, and The Atlas Economic Research Foundation (UK), but operated under the name International Policy Network. IPN's sister organization, International Policy Network US Inc., is a non-profit started in 2001.

Funding

IPN was funded entirely by voluntary, charitable gifts from foundations, individuals and businesses. IPN did not receive any funding from governments or political parties, and it did no contract work. IPN developed and implemented a research and advocacy agenda that encompasses not one or a few, but many public policy issues. IPN has received grants totaling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil,{{cite news|last=Owen |first=Jonathan |author2=Paul Bignell|date=7 February 2010|title=Think-Tanks Take Oil Money and Use it to Fund Climate Deniers|work=The Independent|url=http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/07}}
– {{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/how-corporations-have-hijacked-the-climate-change-debate/2006/09/26/1159036541719.html|title=How corporations have hijacked the climate change debate|last=Monbiot|first=George|date=September 27, 2006|work=The Age|accessdate=4 October 2009|location=Melbourne}} although it had not received money from the energy sector for some years.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Programs

IPN undertook ongoing work on public policy in the areas of health, environment, economic development, trade, creativity and innovation. The Freedom to Trade Campaignis ran in collaboration with the Atlas Global Initiative. The campaign joined 73 think tanks in 48 countries to support free trade and oppose protectionism.{{Cite web|url=https://www.freedomtotrade.org/|title=Neue Domain bei der webgo GmbH|website=Freedom to Trade}} IPN's Bastiat Prize for Journalism was founded in 2002 and is ongoing. The prize recognises and rewards journalists and commentators who support the free society.{{Cite web |url=http://www.bastiatprize.org/ |title=IPN: Bastiat Prize 2008 |access-date=2009-06-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828082015/http://www.bastiatprize.org/ |archive-date=2008-08-28 |url-status=dead|publisher=International Policy Network }} In 2009, IPN awarded the first Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism.

Links to other organisations

IPN was founded by Antony Fisher in the UK as the International Institute for Economic Research (IIER) in 1971. Fisher went on to set up a think tank creating other think tanks to promote neoliberalism,{{cite book |last=Innset |first=Ola |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCLNDwAAQBAJ |title=Reinventing Liberalism: The Politics, Philosophy and Economics of Early Neoliberalism (1920–1947) |date= 2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-38885-0 |location=Berlin |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NCLNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA187 187] |via=Google Books}} and founded the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US in 1981,{{cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=Timothy |date=2005 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23999581|title=The Work of Economics: How a Discipline Makes Its World |journal=European Journal of Sociology |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=299–310 |doi=10.1017/S000397560500010X |s2cid=146456853|doi-access=free|jstor=23999581 |quote=By that time [1979] what had begun as a fringe right-wing current had become the most powerful political orthodoxy. The neoliberal movement was now trying to extend its network to other parts of the world. In 1981, a close collaborator of Hayek, Anthony Fisher, established the Atlas Foundation for Economic Research. Its goal was to coordinate activities and corporate funding among the network of European and American think tanks, and to extend it by developing and financing a group of neoliberal organizations in Western Europe and the United States.}}{{cite book |last=Salles-Djelic |first=Marie-Laure |chapter=Building an Architecture for Political Influence: Atlas and the Transnational Institutionalization of the Neoliberal Think Tank |date= 2017 |title=Power, Policy and Profit |location=Chelthenham|pages=25–44 |chapter-url=https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/edcoll/9781784711207/9781784711207.00007.xml |access-date=31 December 2024 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=978-1-78471-120-7 }}{{cite news |last=Geoghegan |first=Peter |date=29 May 2024 |title=The Invisible Doctrine by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison review – neoliberalism's ascent |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/29/the-invisible-doctrine-by-george-monbiot-and-peter-hutchison-review-neoliberalisms-ascent |access-date=January 1, 2025 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}} and from this point the IIER traded as Atlas Foundation UK. This organisation underwent a further rebranding in 2001, when it changed its name to IPN. In the US, the Atlas Foundation also provides training and funding to start libertarian think tanks. Fisher founded the influential Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a neoliberal think tank based in London. The founding director of IPN, Julian Morris, was previously director of the IEA's Environment and Technology Programme.

People

=Past notable trustees/directors=

=Past notable staff=

Some of IPN's partners

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20130328101844/http://www.policynetwork.net/about-ipn last archive.org snapshot of IPN US web site]
  • {{EW charity|262982|The Atlas Economic Research Foundation (UK)}}
  • [http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=155 Profile] at LobbyWatch.org
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20150223152335/http://www.carbonbrief.org/profiles/international-policy-network Profile] at CarbonBrief.org
  • [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Policy_Network Entry for IPN] on the SourceWatch web site.
  • George Monbiot, [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/27/post437/print "Smoke in our eyes"], The Guardian, 27 September 2006
  • George Monbiot, [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/sep/26/comment.oil/print "Pundits who contest climate change should tell us who is paying them"], The Guardian, 26 September 2006

{{Authority control}}

Category:Climate change denial

Category:Libertarian organisations based in the United Kingdom

Category:Libertarian think tanks

Category:Organizations disestablished in 2011

Category:Think tanks established in 1971

Category:Organizations of environmentalism skeptics and critics

Category:Political and economic think tanks based in the United Kingdom

Category:1971 establishments in England