International Institute for Strategic Studies

Research

The institute has worked with governments, defence ministries and global organisations such as NATO.

Advisory services

The IISS provides ‘strategic advice and political risk analysis to government and commercial clients’.

Publications

In 2011 the institute published the FARC files—documents captured from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that shed light on the movement's inner workings.

The 2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index ranked the Shangri-La Dialogue as the best Think tank conference worldwide.

History

The Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS), as it was originally known, was founded in 1958, following a conference in January 1957, which gathered together the main voices interested in the nuclear issues of the day. Military historian Michael Howard chaired a group which recommended that ‘we should set up a body whose primary  purpose should be the collection and dissemination of information about nuclear weapons and their implications for international relations...And so the Institute was born.’

Its first director was the defence journalist Alastair Buchan, and its first president the former Labour prime minister Clement Attlee.

While the Institute’s initial composition was mainly British, from 1968 the council were joined by Australian and Japanese members. Because of this, it was renamed the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in 1971.

Since then, the IISS has convened many private discussion groups and conferences and also hosted influential public events and lectures. The 1977 Alastair Buchan memorial lecture, delivered by West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (an Institute member since 1959), which became known as one of the key appeals for ‘Euromissiles’ to counter new Soviet intermediate-range missiles.

In 2016, The Guardian reported that IISS "has been accused of jeopardising its independence after leaked documents showed it has secretly received £25m from the Bahraini royal family", noting that leaked "documents reveal that IISS and Bahrain's rulers specifically agreed to keep the latter's funding for the Manama Dialogues secret". The IISS did not dispute the authenticity of the leaked documents or deny receiving funding from Bahrain, but issued a response stating that "[a]ll IISS contractual agreements, including those with host governments, contain a clause asserting the institute's absolute intellectual and operational independence as an international organisation that does not participate in any manner of advocacy".

Peter Oborne in Middle East Eye subsequently reported that IISS may have received nearly half of its total income from Bahraini sources during the 2010s.

The IISS moved to new headquarters at Arundel House in 2000. In 2023, the IISS had approximately 160 employees and an annual turnover of more than £25 million.

Raymond L. Garthoff wrote in 2004:

Major funders

Major funders contributing £100,000 or more:

• Airbus
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• BAE Systems
• Raytheon
• Boeing Company
• Rolls-Royce
• General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
• Taylor & Francis

Directors

• Alastair Buchan (1958–1969)
• François Duchêne (1969–1974)
• Christoph Bertram (1974–1982)
• Robert J. O'Neill (1982–1987)
• François Heisbourg (1987–1992)
• Bo Huldt (1992–1993)
• John Chipman (1993–2023)
• (2023-present)

Governance

The IISS is a registered charity, and fundraising is overseen by the board of trustees.

The trustees appoint members of the IISS Council, the institute’s intellectual advisory body. Both the trustees and the council have an international composition. The director-general and chief executive (Bastian Giegerich) and the executive chairman (Sir John Chipman KCMG) both report to the chairman of the trustees.

As of February 2024, the trustees of the IISS were:

• Bill Emmott (chairman of the trustees), chairman of the Japan Society (UK); former editor in chief, The Economist;
• Caroline Atkinson, Senior Advisor, Rock Creek; former head, Global Policy, Google; former Deputy National Security Adviser, International Economics, Obama Administration;
• Neha Aviral, principal, ghSMART;
• Hakeem Belo-Osagie, chairman, FSDH Holding Company; chairman of the Board of Trustees, Harvard Centre for African Studies
• John O. Brennan, former director, Central Intelligence Agency;
• Chris Jones, director, Becton, Dickinson and Co;
• Chung Min Lee, (chairman of the Advisory Council); professor, Institute of Convergence and Security Affairs, Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology; Senior Fellow, Asia Programme, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Florence Parly, Former Minister of the Armed Forces, France
• Kasper Rørsted, Former CEO of Adidas; Former CEO of Henkel; Member of the Board of Directors, AP Moller-Maersk; Member of Supervisory Board Siemens AG;
• Lord Sedwill, Former Cabinet Secretary and National Security Adviser, Cabinet Office, UK; chair of the Atlantic Future Forum;
• Grace Reksten Skaugen, Co-founder and Board Member, Norwegian Institute of Directors; chair, Euronav NV; chair, Orrön Energy AB (formerly Lundin);
• Matthew Symonds Co-founder, The Independent; former Defence and Security Editor, The Economist; former Executive Director, The Lawrence Ellison Foundation

The Advisory Council is composed of:

• Chung Min Lee (chairman of the Advisory Council)
• Joanne de Asis, president, Globe Capital Partners; Senior Advisor, Morgan Stanley
• Caroline Atkinson,
• Linden P. Blue, chief executive officer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
• Garvin Brown, chairman, Brown-Forman Corporation
• General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, GCB, CBE, Former Chief of the General Staff, British Army;
• Alejandro Santo Domingo, Chairman of Grupo Empresarial Bavaria, Colombia; managing director, Quadrant Capital Advisors,
• Bill Emmott (chairman of the Trustees)
• Thomas Enders, president, German Council on Foreign Relations; former Chief Executive Officer, Airbus
• Michael Fullilove, executive director, Lowy Institute;
• Yoichi Funabashi, Co-founder and Chairman, Asia Pacific Initiative;
• Alia Hatoug-Bouran, Senator, The Jordanian Senate; president, Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean
• Eyal Hulata, Senior international fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Former National Security Advisor, Israel and Former Head of Israel’s National Security Council
• Badr Jafar, President of Crescent Petroleum; CEO of Crescent Enterprises
• Bilahari Kausikan, chairman, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore; Former Ambassador-at-Large and Policy Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
• Thomas Lembong, director, Consilience Policy; former Chairman, Investment Coordinating Board; former Minister of Trade, Indonesia
• Eric X. Li, founder and Managing Director, Chengwei Capital
• Peter Maurer, Former President, International Committee of the Red Cross; former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations
• Florence Parly;
• Lord Powell of Bayswater KCMG, Member, House of Lords; former Private Secretary and Adviser on Foreign Affairs and Defence to Prime Ministers Thatcher and Major
• Andrés Rozental, Eminent Ambassador of Mexico; President Rozental & Associates;
• Lord Sedwill,
• Debra Soon, Group Head, Marketing and Communications, Aviva Singlife Holdings
• Heizo Takenaka, Professor Emeritus, Keio University; former Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication
• Marcus Wallenberg, chairman, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken; Chairman Saab AB; Vice Chair, Investor AB; chairman, Foundation Asset Management; director, Astra Zeneca

References

References

1. "Contact Us".
2. "The IISS launches The Military Balance 2023, analysing Russia and Ukraine's military forces and China's military modernisation".
3. Norton-Taylor, Richard. (2010-09-07). "Al-Qaida and Taliban threat is exaggerated, says security thinktank". The Guardian.
4. McGann, James G.. (31 January 2018). "2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report".
5. "Think Tank Alert Rankings".
6. Transparify. (16 November 2018). "Pressure grows on UK think tanks that fail to disclose their funders".
7. "NATO Defense College and the International Institute for Strategic Studies convene the first NATO-Gulf Strategic Dialogue in Manama".
8. "IISS Advisory".
9. "FARC files 'show ties to Chavez'".
10. "Think Tanks".
11. "[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/06/british-thinktank-iiss-received-25m-from-bahraini-royals-documents-reveal British thinktank received £25m from Bahraini royals, documents reveal] {{Webarchive. link. (16 January 2023 ", ''The Guardian'', 6 December 2016 .)
12. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20161110040909/http://www.iiss.org/en/about-s-us/our-s-funding Our funding]", IISS, 10 November 2016.
13. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20161208114259/http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/iiss-activities-kingdom-bahrain IISS activities in the Kingdom of Bahrain]", IISS, 7 December 2016.
14. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20161213093935/http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/bahrain-and-iiss-questions-need-be-answered-446353297 Bahrain and the IISS: The questions that need to be answered]", Middle East Eye, 9 December 2016.
15. (6 December 2016). "British thinktank received £25m from Bahraini royals, documents reveal". The Guardian.
16. A Journey Through the Cold War, 2004, p. 64. See also "Conflict: An International Journal", 1987 edition, 85–86.
17. "IISS Funding | Membership, Sponsorship and Royalties".
18. "The IISS Governance".
19. "The Trustees".
20. "The Advisory Council".