International Institute for Strategic Studies

The current director-general and chief executive is John Chipman.[4] Sir Michael Howard, the British military historian, founded the institute[5] together with the British Labour MP Denis Healey (Defence Secretary, 1964–1970 and Chancellor, 1974–1979) and University of Oxford academic Alastair Francis Buchan.[6]

Based in London, the IISS is both a private company limited by guarantee in UK law and a registered charity.[7]

The institute has worked with governments, defence ministries and global organisations such as NATO.[8]

In 2011 the institute published the FARC files[9]—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.[10]

Raymond L. Garthoff wrote in 2004:[11]

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.

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".[12][13] 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".[14]

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.[15]

• 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–present)[4]

Council members as of 2017 are:[16]

• Professor François Heisbourg, Chairman of the IISS and of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy
• Joanne de Asis, founder and chairperson, Asia Pacific Capital Partners
• Fleur de Villiers, journalist
• Field Marshal Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank
• Bill Emmott, journalist
• Michael Fullilove, academic
• Marillyn A. Hewson, Chairman, President and CEO of Lockheed Martin
• Badr Jafar, President of Crescent Petroleum
• Bilahari Kausikan, Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Singapore)
• Ellen Laipson, president and CEO, Henry L Stimson Center
• Chung Min Lee, Professor of International Relations, Yonsei University
• Eric X. Li, founder and managing director, Chengwei Capital
• Jean-Claude Mallet, Councillor of State (France)
• Moeletsi Mbeki
• Michael D. Rich
• Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater
• George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen
• Ambassador Andrés Rozental Gutman, President, Rozental & Asociados
• Thomas Seaman, Fellow and Bursar, All Souls College, Oxford
• Grace Reksten Skaugen, chair of Norwegian Institute of Directors and deputy chair of Statoil
• Major-General Amos Yadlin, former IAF General
• Igor Yurgens, chairman of the management board of the Institute of Contemporary Development

• List of think tanks in the United Kingdom

• Official website