Political, economic and social crises present policy experts with special challenges. What role should policy researchers play in dealing with such crises? To what extent should we be in the business of forecasting as opposed to helping societies and their leaders develop contingency plans? Is it enough to simply talk about the problems or should we be doing more to address them directly? Similarly, are there blind spots that think tanks face because of the nature of their organizational norms or standard methodologies? This panel will draw from the experience of leading think tanks to discuss the mission and implementation of policy research communities in times of social upheaval.