International Institute for Strategic Studies

International Institute for Strategic Studies
AbbreviationIISS
Formation1958; 65 years ago (1958)
TypeInternational relations think tank
HeadquartersLondon, England, United Kingdom
51°30′41″N 0°06′49″W / 51.511502°N 0.113550°W / 51.511502; -0.113550
Director-General and Chief Executive
John Chipman
Websitewww.iiss.org

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is a British research institute or think tank in the area of international affairs. Since 1997, its headquarters have been at Arundel House in London.[citation needed]

The 2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index ranked IISS as the tenth-best think tank worldwide and the second-best Defence and National Security think tank globally, while Transparify ranked it third-largest UK think tank by expenditure, but gave it its lowest rating, "deceptive", on funding transparency.

Overview

The current director-general and chief executive is John Chipman. Sir Michael Howard, the British military historian, founded the institute together with the British Labour MP Denis Healey (Defence Secretary, 1964–1970 and Chancellor, 1974–1979) and University of Oxford academic Alastair Francis Buchan.

Based in London, the IISS is both a private company limited by guarantee in UK law and a registered charity.

Research

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

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

Raymond L. Garthoff wrote in 2004:

In 1959 the IISS issued a pamphlet on the "military balance" between the Soviet Union and NATO. It was unfortunately replete with errors, having been put together from published sources of widely varying quality. I called this to the attention of Alastair Buchan, the director of the institute, who was quite disturbed. A new version was issued in November 1960, much more correct and accurate, though still not up to the latest intelligence. Again, I called this to Buchan's attention, and he undertook to check out with British authorities what became annual issuances.

Controversy

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 in some years.

Directors

Council

Council members as of 2017 are:

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-11-01 00:43 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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