International Institute for Strategic Studies

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict.

The IISS, based in London, is both a limited company in UK law and a registered charity. It has offices in the US and in Singapore with charitable status in each jurisdiction.

The IISS was founded in 1958 in the UK by a number of individuals interested in how to maintain civilised international relations in the nuclear age. Much of the Institute’s early work focused on nuclear deterrence and arms control and was hugely influential in setting the intellectual structures for managing the Cold War.

The Institute grew dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, expanding both because of the nature of its work and its geographical scope. Its mandate became to look at the problems of conflict, however caused, that might have an important military content. This gave fresh impetus to the Institute as it began to cover more comprehensively political and military issues in all continents. As this mandate developed, the Institute worked hard both to provide the best information and analysis on strategic trends, and to facilitate contacts between government leaders, business people and analysts that would lead to the development of better public policy in the fields of international relations and international security.

The IISS is the primary source of accurate, objective information on international strategic issues for politicians and diplomats, foreign affairs analysts, international business, economists, the military, defence commentators, journalists, academics and the informed public. The Institute is independent, owing no allegiance to any governments or any political or other organisations. The IISS stresses rigorous research with a forward-looking policy orientation and places particular emphasis on bringing new perspectives to strategic discussions.

The IISS is a membership organisation. The Council and Staff of the Institute are international and its Membership is drawn from more than 90 countries.

The Institute’s work is grounded in an appreciation of various political, economic and social problems that cause instability, as well as the factors that can lead to international cooperation. Through its ‘para-diplomatic’ activity it provides much of the oil that eases the frictionof international affairs. The IISS has unique convening power. It brings together annually defence ministers, foreign ministers a nd national security advisers in various formats privately, and more publicly, to discuss and shape international security policy. It holds influential events each year in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia as well as in Latin America and Africa. The IISS is truly a global organisation.

IISS publications are read by key decision -makers and are commented upon within governments at Cabinet level. They include the authoritative annual The Military Balance, an inventory of the world’s armed forces; the online Armed Conflict Database; Strategic Survey, an annual retrospective of the year’s political and military trends; the Adelphi series of books which provides in-depth analysis of general strategic issues; Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, an international relations journal; and Strategic Comments, containing short briefings on breaking strategic issues. There are also occasional publications such as the IISS Strategic Dossier range.

The range of IISS publications, its convening power, and the Institute’s strong international policy perspective make the IISS a key actor in the global strategic debate.