President-elect Joe Biden has begun the process of establishing transition teams for his administration despite President Trump’s reluctance to admit defeat in the election. His teams are set to be the most diverse yet with 46 percent of the team people of color and 52 percent women. Overall, the team consists of around 500 people with a variety of backgrounds represented. Biden has repeatedly stated that it is important to him to have a transition team and Cabinet that reflects the makeup of America and is not solely elderly white men.
Much of the transition teams come from think tanks, perhaps most notably, the team for the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD team will be led by Kathleen H. Hicks who is currently the director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a prominent think tank located in Washington DC. Others on the team currently work for, or have previously worked for, the RAND Cooperation, New America, and the Center for a New American Security. While think tanks are not a part of the government, the work they do is often cited by members of Congress or governmental departments. It theoretically is unbiased and independent research. However, many think tanks rely on massive donations from corporations that have a vested interest in what the research says. This may lead to less impartial research as employees wish to keep receiving funding.
While it is not problematic for members of the transition team to have worked at think tanks, it is important to be cognizant of possible links between officials and organizations and to recognize the greater problem within funding for research.
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