The Center for International Policy (CIP) is a non-profit foreign policy research and advocacy think tank with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City. It was founded in 1975 in response to the Vietnam War. The Center describes its mission as promoting "cooperation, transparency and accountability in global relations. Through research and advocacy, our programs address the most urgent threats to our planet: war, corruption, inequality and climate change."
The center is the parent organization for a variety of projects, including the Security Assistance Monitor, the Arms & Security Project, and the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative. It also has collaborated with the Washington Office on Latin America and the Latin America Working Group to publish the Just the Facts website. The center is currently the fiscal sponsor of the environmental protection organization, Mighty Earth, and Freedom Forward. Several prominent individuals serve as senior fellows and board members with CIP, including former Costa Rican president Óscar Arias Sánchez, UN ambassador Dessima Williams, Michael Barnes, and Matthew Hoh.
History
1970s
The center was founded in 1975 under the fiscal sponsorship of the Fund for Peace by activists, including Bill Goodfellow and then-retired US foreign service official Donald Ranard, who served as the center's first executive director.
During its first years, the Center focused its work on Asia, especially United States foreign policy towards South Korea and its relationships with the Park Chung Hee-led government. In 1976, Ranard testified to Congress on human rights violations in South Korea and the role of South Korean lobbyists in Washington. In 1978, the center established an Indochina Program, which advocated the normalization of diplomatic relations with Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; the program was closed 11 years later in 1989.
In the mid-1970s, while at the time also co-chairs of the center's Board, US Representatives Donald Fraser and Tom Harkin introduced legislation that incorporated foreign countries' human rights records into consideration of security and economic aid.
1980s
During the 1980s, CIP campaigned in support of the Contadora Group and the subsequent Esquipulas Peace Agreement.
After South Africa received a loan from the International Monetary Fund in 1983, the center began a campaign that pushed for provisions that prohibited the US representative to the IMF to support loans to countries that practice apartheid. The Center continued its work with research into labor practices and economic impacts of apartheid in South Africa.
1990s
In 1990, the center established a joint program with the Costa Ricabased Arias Foundation, founded by Óscar Arias. The organisation's new president, Robert White, also worked extensively with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during his exile in Washington in the 1990s.
Wayne Smith joined the Center in 1991 to establish its Cuba program, working towards the normalisation of relations between the United States and Cuba.
In the mid-1990s, Adam Isacson established the Latin American Security program, which still operates today. The program campaigned against the militarisation of Plan Colombia and supporting the movement of funds to programs for judicial reforms and economic development. In June 1999, the program led the first ever congressional delegation to meet with insurgent leaders inside the territory they controlled.
2000s
Clarissa Segun and Paul Olweny, leaders for the Demilitarization for Democracy project, joined the Center in 2000. The project campaigned for diplomatic aid and United Nations peacekeeping. The project eventually closed in 2006.
Sarah Stephens worked on Cuba policy, joining the Center in 2001 with the Freedom to Travel project. She left CIP in 2006 and then launched the Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA).
In 2003, then-President Robert White established a program focused on governmental corruption in Central America, specifically illegal logging in Honduras. Former The Washington Post foreign correspondent Selig Harrison joined CIP in the same year to head the center's Asia program which focused on North Korea and the Indian subcontinent.
With the publishing of his book Capitalism's Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System (Wiley & Sons, 2005), CIP senior fellow Raymond Baker founds Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a non-profit, research and advocacy organisation focused on the role of illicit financial flows.