Oxford Research Group (ORG) has been named as one of the top 20 think tanks in the UK by The Independent newspaper in a review of British think tanks. The announcement came on 4th April in a special issue of The Independent Review dedicated to ‘blue sky thinking’.

ORG is one of the few think tanks on the list to be based outside London. Established in 1982 by Dr. Scilla Elworthy and originally based in Woodstock, ORG now has offices in the village of Wytham and maintains close links with civil society organisations and individuals in Oxford.

Oxford Research Group is an independent non-governmental organisation, with charitable status, devoted to researching and promoting non-military solutions to conflict, and to facilitating productive dialogues between policy makers and their critics. ORG combines rigorous research into nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, UK security policy, and global security in the changing international environment, with an understanding of the people who make policy decisions.

Using skilled facilitation they bring senior policy-makers together with independent analysts, military experts and psychologists, to develop ways past the obstacles to achieving peace with security. Many of their dialogues are held at Charney Manor, a Quaker retreat and conference centre in Oxfordshire, and they have held a number of public events at Rhodes House and many of the university colleges.

The Independent highlighted ORG’s work on nuclear issues, which has led the organisation to conclude that it would be in Britain’s best interests not to replace the Trident nuclear missile system, and to wind down its nuclear weapons capacity. In response, Dr John Sloboda, ORG’s Executive Director, said:

“Our nuclear work is just one example of the way in which we constructively challenge prevailing security orthodoxy. We also have been developing robust non-military options for dealing with ‘rogue states’ such as North Korea and Iran; and critically assessing the outcomes of the ‘war on terror’ in the light of the Iraq War. Think tanks have often been criticised for being unrealistic. However, many would now accept that it is the neoconservative world-view that dominates Washington, and influences US allies, that has departed from reality. We have defined our approach as one of ‘radical realism’, in that we try to refocus the debate onto the major threats to global security – such as poverty, resource scarcity, environmental degradation, nuclear proliferation and trade injustice – which will, if unaddressed, threaten many more lives than terrorism.”


The Independent feature on think tanks is available at  http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=626083