In the late twentieth century, public management gradually evolved from rigid and unitary linear management by the government to public governance involving multiple stakeholders. With the advent of the knowledge economy and society in an era of globalization, public governance issues have become increasingly complex and diversified. There is an urgent call for think tanks, which are established institutions, to fulfill their functions and roles. It is more necessary for think tanks to “act in a targeted manner” to innovate theoretical and methodological paradigms, establish new disciplines, and conduct interdisciplinary research in an organized, comprehensive and systematic way. In the process of global think tank development, it is specialization that enables think tanks to be widely recognized for fulfilling their roles in the real sense. On the basis of theoretical and methodological innovation, think tanks have greatly improved science-orientation and moved towards disciplinization with the formation of new disciplinary directions and theoretical paradigms. Think tank science and engineering has thus emerged as a new discipline.