Since its establishment in 1958, the IISS has developed a high-level network of Membership and other expert and corporate contacts in India, enabling it to produce high-quality research on Indian and related strategic issues. As part of this endeavour, it has over the years hosted Research Associates and Visiting Fellows from India. These have included the doyen of the Indian strategic community, Mr. K. Subrahmanyam (former Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board of the Prime Minister’s Office), Major General (now Lt. General (retd.)) A.S. Kalkat (former Commander of the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka), and Mr. Shekhar Gupta (Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express).
The list of IISS Members in India include senior officials of the Indian government, officers of the armed forces, corporate leaders, eminent editors and journalists, and members of the strategic and political elite of the country. Indian nationals have also been members of the IISS Governing Council, including the late General (retd.) J.N. Chaudhuri (former Chief of Army Staff) and Mr. Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, Indian Express. The Director of the Delhi Policy Group, Lt. General (retd.) V.R. Raghavan, former Director General of Military Operations, is the current Member of the IISS Governing Council.
The Institute’s organisation and research influenced the shape of India’s premier defence and security think tank, the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses (IDSA), established in 1965. The founder Director of the IDSA, Major General D. Som Dutt (then Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, southern India) was a Research Associate at the IISS in 1965-66, prior to his Directorship of the IDSA. The following year, Mr. K. Subrahmanyam, the second Director of the IDSA was a Research Associate at the IISS/London School of Economics.
From 1999–2003, the IISS hosted three South Asia Security conferences, which included the participation of senior Indian officials.
In October 2003, the IISS advanced its expertise on India with the establishment of a dedicated programme on South Asia. The IISS South Asia programme is now considered to be the leading research and conference-based programme on contemporary regional security issues in the UK and Europe. A key research theme of the programme is to assess the evolution and implications of India as a rising great power. IISS research on India and related strategic issues is regularly published in a range of IISS books and journals.
Since 2003, the IISS’s engagement with India has included:
i) Ministerial addresses at IISS conferences in Singapore (the ‘Shangri-La’ dialogue’), Bahrain (the ‘Manama Dialogue’), Geneva (the ‘Global Strategic Review’) and London;
ii) Foreign Policy Dialogues with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in London and New Delhi.
iii) Roundtable and discussion meetings with senior Indian officials and experts in London;
iv) Annual South Asia security conferences in Muscat, which includes the participation of senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the armed forces and the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) in the Prime Minister’s Office;
v) Southern Asia water conference;
vi) Two annual IISS-South Asia seminars in New Delhi;
An Indian national, Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, IISS Senior Fellow for South Asia, formerly with the National Security Council Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, New Delhi and the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi, heads the South Asia programme.
