News Release

The Brookings Institution transitions from foreign centers to focus on digital and global engagement

September 29, 2021

This week, Brookings announced it is separating from the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, following transitions of centers at Tsinghua University and in India.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Brookings Institution and the Brookings Doha Center, located in Qatar, announced today that they are ending their formal affiliation. After 14 years of an impactful partnership, the Brookings Doha Center will be transitioning to a separate public policy institution. Brookings and the Center have been working on the change for more than a year and are excited to have entered the final phase. The Center will become the Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

This announcement follows the transitions of Brookings’s other foreign centers, the Brookings Institution India Center and Brookings-Tsinghua Center, in 2020. The India Center became the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, a separate entity located in New Delhi. Brookings transitioned its Brookings-Tsinghua Center to an informal partnership with Tsinghua University, known as Brookings-Tsinghua China, which will serve as a platform for engagement, dialogue, and policy debate.

These transitions come from a change in overarching strategy for responsive global engagement. In an increasingly digital world, Brookings is adapting from traditional brick-and-mortar offices abroad. Instead, the institution will deepen its partnerships and relationships in critical regions to foster dialogue and idea exchange.

Brookings is proud of the Doha Center’s achievements and will remain engages in the region through other means of policy debate and research.

About Brookings

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. Our mission is to conduct in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.