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.

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.

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.

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.