The impetus for this IISS programme came from World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who remarked in a speech he made to the 2008 Global Strategic Review conference in Geneva that addressing fragile states affected by conflict required new ways of thinking about development, and that security and development specialists needed to be brought together in order to ensure peace and stability. This was a challenge that Dr John Chipman, IISS Director-General and Chief Executive, readily accepted. The Portland Trust, a UK charitable foundation headed by Sir Ronald Cohen, provided the funding that enabled the programme to be launched.
