Center on International Cooperation

The Center on International Cooperation (CIC) is a foreign policy think tank based at New York University that works to enhance multilateral responses to global problems, including: conflict, humanitarian crises, and recovery; international security challenges, including weapons proliferation and the changing balance of power.; and resource scarcity and climate change. Through innovative applied research and direct engagement with policy actors, CIC has been at the forefront of policy decision-making in each of its core areas of research.[1]

Center on International Cooperation
Founded1996
FounderDr. Shepard Forman
FocusImproving multilateral responses to security and humanitarian threats
Location
  • New York City, United States
MethodPolicy Reports and Recommendations
Key people
Sarah Cliffe, Director
Websitecic.nyu.edu

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 received his Ph.D.in Anthropology, did post-doctoral work in development economics at the Institute for Development Studies at Sussex, England, field research in Northeast Brazil and Timor-Leste, and 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 UN Peacebuilding Commission.

In 2005, Dr. Bruce D. Jones became CIC's Director. Jones has held a range of positions at the United Nations, and works regularly with the Brookings Institution and the World Bank. Most recently, 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 United Nations Secretary-General 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 United Nations 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 United Nations 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 IAEA's report on WMD terrorism in April 2010, drawing from previous research support to the IAEA Special Event on the Nuclear Fuel Cycle. Most recently, 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.[2]

In 2015, Sarah Cliffe, a former senior officer at the World Bank and the United Nations became CIC's third Director.

CIC staff regularly collaborate with a number of international and domestic institutions, such as the Brookings Institution, the European Council on Foreign Relations, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), and Humanitarian Outcomes. CIC maintains strong links to the current U.S. Administration, strengthened through CIC's institutional and programmatic foci on issues of interest to the U.S. Government and to capitals around the world.

The Center receives and has received financial support and funding from a number of institutions such as The Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Open Society Foundations, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the United States Institute of Peace, the World Bank, the Brookings Institution, the Compton Foundation, and the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.

Leadership
  • Sarah F. Cliffe, Director of New York University's CIC[3]
  • Paige Arthur, Deputy director of New York University's CIC[4]
  • Hanny Megally, Senior Fellow at New York University's CIC[5]
  • Barnett Rubin, Senior Fellow and Associate Director of CIC, where he directs the Afghanistan Pakistan Regional Program (2000)[6]
  • Jason Stearns, CIC Senior Fellow and Director of the Congo Research Group (2001)[7]
  • David Steven, Senior Fellow and Associate Director at New York University's CIC[8]

Programs

CIC's programs and research activities focus on international security institutions, post-conflict peacebuilding, and global peace operations, with particular emphasis on the UN and multilateral responses to conflict.

Afghanistan Regional Project

Establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan remains an immediate challenge for the international community. The Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project (APRP) utilizes subject-matter expertise and extensive networks to support efforts to achieve greater stability in Afghanistan and the region. Through a blend of structured dialogues, applied research, and strategic outreach, APRP works on many of the most pressing problems facing Afghanistan and the surrounding region—from reconciliation to security to regional cooperation.

Congo Research Group

Congo Research Group (CRG) is an independent, non-profit research project dedicated to understanding the violence that affects millions of Congolese.  It carries out rigorous research on different aspects of the conflict. Its first report, for example, investigated who is behind a series of massacres in the Beni region, while others reports look at links between elections and conflict, and at armed groups in the Kivus region. All of its research is informed by deep historical and social knowledge of the problem at hand, and it often invests months of field research, speaking with hundreds of people to produce a report. Based at CIC, the CRG publishes in English and French.

Humanitarian Crises

CIC’s Humanitarian Crises program focuses on two main areas: the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, and the rights and responsibilities within the global refugee regime. In both areas, CIC seeks to fill important gaps in strategic and policy analysis at the global and country levels. This is achieved by focusing on the links between protracted crisis and inequitable development in countries affected by conflict and fragility.

Multilateral Reform

CIC's Multilateral Reform program aims to provide deeper understanding, independent analysis, and perspectives to assist stakeholders in the reform process. It also supports efforts to create synergies and facilitate communication among the peace and security, human rights, and development pillars of the UN and between the UN and international financial institutions,

Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies

The Center on International Cooperation co-founded and currently hosts the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership that brings together UN member states, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector to accelerate delivery of the SDG targets for peace, justice and inclusion.

The Pathfinders have developed the Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, which is also available in French and Spanish. The roadmap provides a shared vision for how SDG16+ can be delivered. It is an ambitious, but practical, document that acts as a "docking station" to bring many different partners and initiatives together.

Prevention and Peacebuilding

Building on two decades of CIC work to improve international responses to preventing conflict and building peace, the Prevention and Peacebuilding program provides innovative, policy-relevant, and real-time evidence and arguments for advancing the chances for sustainable peace.

References
  1. Center on International Cooperation, About Us Archived September 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  2. UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability
  3. "Sarah Cliffe". Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  4. "Paige Arthur". Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  5. "Hanny Megally". Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  6. "Barnett Rubin". Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  7. "Jason Stearns". Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  8. "David Steven". Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
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