# Center on International Cooperation

The Center on International Cooperation (CIC) is a non-profit research center and think tank based at New York University. For over two decades, CIC has been a leader in applied policy that links politics, security, justice, development, and humanitarian crises, It was founded in 1996 by Dr. Shepard Forman.

## Current mission and impact statement

CIC’s mission is to advance multilateral action to prevent crisis and build peace, justice, and inclusion. CIC programs work towards the prevention of new crises and promotion of peace, justice, and inclusion through thematic and regional/country-based programs.

## History and staff

CIC was established in 1996 by Dr. Shepard Forman, former director of the Ford Foundation's Human Rights, Governance and Public Policy, and International Affairs programs. Forman has a Ph.D. in Anthropology and conducted post-doctoral work in development economics at the Institute for Development Studies in Sussex, England. He taught at Indiana University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Chicago. He authored two books on Brazil and edited six others on multilateral themes and a number of policy papers, including recommendations that served as forerunners to the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission.
In 2008, Dr. Bruce D. Jones became CIC's Director, after Dr. Forman’s retirement. Jones has held a range of positions at the UN and works regularly with the Brookings Institution and the World Bank.
Jones served as Senior External Advisor to the World Bank's 2011 World Development Report on Conflict, Security, and Development, and in March 2010, was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as a member of the Senior Advisory Group to guide the Review of International Civilian Capacities. Other notable fellows include Dr. Barnett Rubin, Jean Arnault, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno.
Under Jones and with Richard Gowan and Jake Sherman, CIC's Annual Review of Global Peace Operations and Review of Political Missions have become seminal works on global peace operations. With Rahul Chandran and other CIC staff, Jones has also produced policy reports that have substantially informed the design of a number of national and multilateral programs and initiatives, including the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations project, New Horizons for Peacekeeping; the OECD and UK Department for International Development's work on state fragility and resilience; the OECD's workstream on financing; and the UN Review of International Civilian Capacities initiative, among others.
CIC staff have enjoyed great influence, both through secondments and research support, in a number of high-profile UN and multilateral initiatives. The first of these, the 2004 UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, strongly featured CIC staff recommendations on peacebuilding, development, and organized crime, all of which have come to be prominently placed in the UN's reform agenda. CIC also helped draft the International Atomic Energy Agency's report on Weapons of Mass Destruction terrorism in April 2010, drawing from previous research support for the IAEA Special Event on the Nuclear Fuel Cycle. Further, CIC was asked to provide policy and research support to the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, with the Panel's findings expected to be released by the end of 2011.
In January 2015, Sarah Cliffe, a former senior officer at the World Bank and the UN, became CIC's third Director.
In fall 2014, the Congo Research Group, joined CIC as one of its premier programs focusing on research and political analysis on understanding conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This country-level work included building capacity of a local research partner in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebuteli, in addition to supporting country-level results analysis in Syria, Western Africa, Indonesia, Costa Rica, among others.
In 2017, CIC also co-founded a multi-stakeholder partnership, the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies to accelerate delivery of the Sustainable Development Goal targets for peace, justice, inclusion, and equality (SDG16+). CIC currently continues to host the Pathfinders, which is now composed of 46 member states and more than 100 civil society partners.
In January 2025, Professor Paul Smoke became the Acting Director, a globally recognized expert in applied public finance and governance with a particular focus on decentralization and intergovernmental relations, has a distinguished career spanning academia, policy, and advisory roles.

## Programs

* Congo Research Group
* Prevention, Peacebuilding, and Protracted Crises
* Promoting and Defending Multilateralism
* Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies
* Regional Focus: Middle East and Northern Africa