Policy think tanks are basically the intellectual interface between the business elite and politicians. They do the analysis, draft the strategies, and come up with the rationales for government policies that serve the interests of their sponsors.
Obviously politicians have a lot of more pressing things to do.
So, when you see a policy being implemented, try to find out which think tank(s) articulated it. Then see who funds that think tank, and you’ll be able to identify pretty accurately who is benefiting, or who is intended to benefit from that policy.
Funding will generally be split between foundations, corporations and individuals.
Take Syria. The US policy of destabilizing the country by playing both sides against the middle, creating a humanitarian crisis, “bleeding” Syria, etc, is pretty much following the policy proposals of the Brookings Institution (among others).
Well, the main foundational funding for Brookings comes from the Brown Foundation…that’s Brown, as in Brown and Kellogg, as in Haliburton. (read: infrastructure reconstruction).
The main individual contributor to Brookings is Haim Saban, an Israeli, extreme Zionist billionaire. (read: Israeli expansion through the balkanization of its neighbors)
The biggest corporations funding Brookings include all the major oil and gas multinationals; weapons, construction, and big pharma companies. (read: complete take over of every single sector of the obliterated economy).