[5] 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.

[citation needed] 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.

[citation needed] 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.

[12] 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.

By informing policymakers, media, scholars, NGOs and the public in the United States and abroad about trends and issues related to U.S. foreign security assistance, their aim is to enhance transparency and promote greater oversight of U.S. military and police aid, arms sales and training.

Collected from a wide range of government documents, the database provides detailed numbers on U.S. arms sales, military and police aid and training programs.

According to program director William D. Hartung, "the use of military force is largely irrelevant in addressing the greatest dangers we face, from terrorism, to nuclear proliferation, to epidemics of disease, to climate change, to inequities of wealth and income.

[19] The Sustainable Defense Task Force (SDTF) is a "bipartisan group of experts from academia, think tanks, government, and retired members of the military.

In June 2019, the task force published a report stating the Pentagon could save $1.2 trillion in projected spending over the next decade "while providing a greater measure of security.