Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Canadian International Council was formally established in November 2007, when members of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs voted to become the CIC. The initiative was launched in October 2007 by Jim Balsillie, formerly co-CEO of Research In Motion, in partnership with the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
The CIC is a Canadian think tank on foreign relations whose stated goal is to strengthen Canada's role in international affairs. It examines issues across academic disciplines, policy areas, and economic sectors, and was modeled on the American Council on Foreign Relations and the United Kingdom's Royal Institute of International Affairs.
The predecessor body, the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (CIIA), was founded by former Prime Minister Robert Borden in 1928. In 1932, Escott Reid became the institute's first full-time national secretary.
The CIC publishes International Journal (IJ), a scholarly journal of global policy analysis established in 1946, and Behind the Headlines, first published in 1940 as a pamphlet series that evolved into a policy paper series. The CIC also manages the online publication OpenCanada.
The CIC is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and operates 19 branches across Canada. Branches are located in cities including Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, Waterloo, Whitehorse, and Winnipeg, among others.
The Network for Democratic Solidarity is a coalition of nations designed to help one another strengthen democratic institutions. It was announced at a 2022 conference on democratic backsliding at McGill University and became an independent organization in May 2023. The project grew out of the CIC's "Renewing Our Democratic Alliance" initiative, supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Canada.