A inquiry by the New York Times reveals that, since 2011, 64 foreign governments have subsidized the 28 most important U.S. think tanks, in stark violation of the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The Times points out that, by doing so, such governments have ensured that nothing damaging to their interests will be published by the think tanks and, in fewer cases, have managed to impose their own concerns, and even used them for lobbying purposes.

The daily points its finger, on the one hand, directly at Japan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Norway and Azerbaijan, and, on the other hand, at the Atlantic Council, the Brookings Institution, the Center for Global Development and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks", by Eric Lipton, Brooke Williams and Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times, 6 September 2014. The newspaper’s website also provides a series of documents collected in the course of the enquiry.