LAUSR

The article analyses the emergence and development of foreign policy think tanks in Russia and Turkey, as well as their role in the political decision-making process. According to the author, the reasons for the appearance of these research centres during the Cold War differ between the two countries. However, in the 1990s in both states, processes such as democratization, strengthening of civil society, especially in Russia, and the emergence of new centres of power in the form of political parties and autonomous business communities, as well as some other factors led to a quantitative increase in the numbers of research organizations. The author stresses that in Russia, most importantly, the state played the decisive role in the development of think tanks, while in Turkey it was the civil society and the business world. It should also be noted that in these two countries, think tanks actively participate in public diplomacy and promotion of the image of their countries abroad. The main conclusions of this study help to determine ways of cooperation between research centres of the two countries. The author argues that the urgence of research on this topic and the attention required from the expert community and decision-makers to the issue are underpinned by the fact that research centres serve as important tools of public diplomacy in peacetime and can play a role of agents of second-track diplomacy in times of crisis.