Barcelona Centre for International Affairs

CIDOB was founded in 1973 as a nonprofit, socio-cultural association based on the personal experience of its founder, Josep Ribera i Pinyol (1933–2017). Ribera was one of the promoters of the Catalan inter-diocesan movement Agermanament (Brothering), which was active in cooperation projects with countries in Africa and Latin America. This original CIDOB was known as CIDOB Tercer Mundo (CIDOB Third World) or CIDOB-TM. In 1979, as a result of the political transformations taking place in Catalonia and Spain, CIDOB was legally constituted as a private foundation with a board of trustees, whose members, public and private, represented the political and cultural life of Catalonia and Spain.

In the following years, CIDOB grew to become a research and documentation centre focused on international affairs and global issues, such as human development and migration. Since the 1990s, the centre has strengthened its networking connections with European initiatives on issues concerning cooperation, international relations, and security, as well as its academic activities, which are aimed to generate ideas and specific political action.

Ribera continued to head CIDOB until December 2008, when he chose to step down after 35 years at the helm. His successor as director was, by decision of the foundation's board of trustees, Jordi Vaquer i Fanés. Narcís Serra i Serra, former mayor of Barcelona, previous minister in the Spanish Government, and one-time leader of the Catalan Socialists, chaired the foundation from 2000 to May 2012, when he was succeeded by economist Carles A. Gasòliba i Böhm.

In March 2010, Javier Solana Madariaga, formerly the EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, was appointed honorary chairman of CIDOB, a newly created post outside the organisational structure. In December 2012, Vaquer, newly appointed head of the new Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE), stepped down as director. In June 2013, the board of trustees selected a new director, economics professor Jordi Bacaria i Colom, who is currently co-director of the Institute of European Integration Studies (IEIE) in Mexico and editor of the journal Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica.

CIDOB's current president, since January 2017, is Antoni Segura i Mas, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Barcelona. Since September 2018, CIDOB has been directed by Pol Morillas, CIDOB's Research Deputy Director up to that date.

In its Revised Master Plan of 2019–2021, where it introduces itself as a "global thought centre", CIDOB sets out eight strategic lines of research, both thematic and geographic:

Every research area is run by a team of researchers, who work with other analysts, assistants, associates, or visiting experts, as well as external collaborators.