The Institute for Strategic & Development Studies, Inc. (ISDS) was founded by a group of academics based at the University of the Philippines in April 1991 as an independent policy research training and advocacy institution. It was established in response to the need for a continuing evaluation and interpretation of changes in national and global affairs for serious international, regional and national audiences. It is also a response to the need to provide academics a venue for research to enrich teaching and to provide inputs to policy making. It is also the institutional vehicle for regional networks in which its founding members had been involved, particularly the ASEAN Institutes of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN ISIS).

ISDS aims to contribute to international and regional peace and cooperation, and human well-being through cooperative research and advocacy, discussion, publication and training activities. Its approach is to identify and mobilize specialists in the fields of international relations, policy studies, and countryside development who will generate a range of options in the formulation of international, regional, national, and local policies. It also conducts its own policy research studies on security and development issues at various levels of governance.