Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Center for International Policy was founded in 1975 in response to the Vietnam War. Activists including Bill Goodfellow and retired U.S. foreign service official Donald Ranard established it under the fiscal sponsorship of the Fund for Peace.
The Center for International Policy describes its mission as promoting cooperation, transparency, and accountability in global relations. It operates as a non-profit foreign policy research and advocacy think tank with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
CIP currently operates nine programs, including the Security Assistance Monitor, the Arms and Security Project, the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative, the Sustainable Defense Task Force, the Cuba Project, the Americas Program, and the Africa Program. It also fiscally sponsors Mighty Earth and Freedom Forward.
In June 2019, the Sustainable Defense 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. CIP launched the task force in November 2018.
Notable figures associated with CIP include former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias Sanchez, UN ambassador Dessima Williams, Michael Barnes, and Matthew Hoh. U.S. Representatives Donald Fraser and Tom Harkin served as co-chairs of the board in the mid-1970s.
The Security Assistance Monitor, led by director Christina Arabia, tracks and analyzes U.S. security and defense assistance programs worldwide. Its database compiles all publicly available data on U.S. foreign security assistance from the year 2000 to the present, covering arms sales, military and police aid, and training programs.