It was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an independent, non-stock, non-profit professional research and training organization in January 1992.

The Institute for Strategic and Development Studies, Inc. (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.

The Institute maintains a Council of Fellows with interests in different disciplines and representing various sectors. Apart from academicians, the Council is composed of ambassadors, Foreign Service officers, businessmen, and individuals who have stood out in the public, private, and "people" sectors for their expertise or their vision.

ISDS is headed by Carolina G. Hernandez, Ph.D., President. Its core programs are the Strategic and Security Studies Program, the Regional and International Studies Program, and the National Development and Local Governance Program. Each one is managed by a Program Director.

The Institute maintains a network of linkages with international, regional, national and local organizations, notably the ASEAN Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN ISIS), the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE), the Pacific Forum-CSIS, the Council for Asia-Europe Cooperation (CAEC), the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS), the Institute for National Policy Research (INPR), the Partnership for Democratic, Governance and Security (PDGS), the Research Forum on Local Governance (RF) as well as the Technical Working Committee on Amending the Local Government Code.

ISDS is also the national secretariat of the Philippine member committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP Philippines); a partner institution of the Canadian Consortium on Asia-Pacific Security (CANCAPS); and the Joint Center for Asian Pacific Studies (JCAPS) of the University of Toronto and York University.

The research outputs of the Institute are disseminated through a variety of local, regional, and international activities and publications such as roundtables, monographs, and books. The Institute considers roundtables a crucial technique for generating information and insights from informed sources, and for wider and immediate dissemination of results. The other outputs are a set of flexible occasional and appropriate modes of disseminating individual and collective research. Altogether, these outputs comprise the platform for the Institute's efforts at policy advocacy at the local, national, regional, and international levels.

Best Practices in Democratizing Civil-Military Relations in Asia is part of the Partnership for Democratic Governance and Security (PDGS) project that aims to promote democracy and strengthen democratic civilian control of the military. This project is undertaken in partnership with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) based in Washington, D.C., the Center for Military Relations (CCMR) of the Naval Postgraduate School based in Monterey, California, the SER en el 200, and the Universidad Torcuato di Tella (UTDT), both based in Buenos Aires.

The South China Sea Dialogue Series, an on-going series of workshops puts together representatives of governmental and non-governmental agencies and institutes (including academics) and attempts to arrive at a better understanding of and generate appropriate policy responses to the security issues surrounding the South China Sea problem. The first meeting was held in November 1995 in partnership with the Pacific Forum-CSIS while the second one was held in October 1997 in collaboration with ASEAN-ISIS.

The ASEAN-ISIS Cooperation Program, a three-year joint undertaking with ASEAN-ISIS and JCAPS and supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) aims at strengthening the research, conference, and dialogue activities among members of the network. Activities include the holding of roundtables on economic and political development, the annual human rights colloquia, the Southeast Asia Forum, ASEAN Young Leaders Forum, and workshops as well as exchanges of fellows and experts from Canada and ASEAN. It also undertakes institutional capacity building for new members of ASEAN ISIS.

The CAEC Task Force on Population, Food, Energy, and the Environment, aims to examine the interconnections between these four areas, i.e. population, food, energy, and environment, within the context of socioeconomic change from a multidisciplinary viewpoint. This research is being undertaken by two sets of teams representing Asia and Europe in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). ISDS involvement in this task force is made possible through the assistance of the Japan Centre for International Exchange (JCIE), the Asian Secretariat for CAEC.

DSSEA is a three-year collaborative research program involving a core group of 25 young scholars from Canada, Indonesia, and the Philippines. This research aims to better understand how the dynamics of development intersect with, exacerbate, or in other ways affect or are affected by security demands. In doing so, this research covers three principal themes each linked to security, whether local, national, or regional: (1) environment, development and security; (2) people's productivity, development and security; (3) globalization, development and security.

The Review of ASEAN's External Relations was a rapid appraisal of ASEAN's dialogue relations and how these dialogues have changed in recent years. ASEAN's external relations have been expanding over the years and need to be comprehensively reviewed as ASEAN neared its 30th anniversary in 1997.

The AFTA Study documented how ASEAN, with the establishment of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), has responded to the dramatic and rapid transformations occurred in the global and regional environment. It also examined the impact of AFTA on the Philippines, particularly in the policy-making process. It emphasized the collaborative efforts of policy-makers and the various sectors of society. This study, which is now available in book form, was conducted by Dr. Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista and Mr. Jaime Faustino. The Asia Foundation provides financial support for this undertaking.

This pilot study intended to provide ASEAN Member Countries with a comprehensive perspective of the adjustment costs and benefits of AFTA on strategic industries. It aimed to assist ASEAN policy-makers in the formulation of cooperative action plans for enhancing the global competitiveness of these industries. ISDS was coordinator for the textile sector of the project, which was funded by the ASEAN Secretariat. CSIS Jakarta was the overall project coordinator.

ASEAN Labor Migration to Taiwan was a joint research undertaking with Cheng-chih University. It focused on the patterns of labor migration flows from Southeast Asia to Taiwan and involved an examination of the consequences and implications of such flows on the cooperation strategies in the Asia-Pacific region.

This study by Dr. Carolina Hernandez examined the strategic role played by think tanks in East Asia in generating, organizing, and disseminating various kinds of data required for public policy-making. It also documented the various ways of classifying East Asian think tanks from the point of view of geographic scope and from the nature of their relations with government.

This project, which involved a series of workshops in early 1996 on the issue of "Bilateral Security in a Multilateral Era: New Linkages in Asia and the Pacific" was funded in part by The Asia Foundation (TAF) and undertaken in coordination with the Center for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations (CSAAR), TAF, the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), ISIS Thailand, and Korea University's Asiatic Research Center.

The Rapid Candidate Appraisal Technique (RCAT) was a joint project of the ISDS with Green Forum-Philippines, a coalition of environmental organization in the country. RCAT was developed as part of voter education in the Philippines prior to the general elections of May 1992. It was designed to help voters assess the performance and platforms of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates across fifteen (15) critical issues that were clustered under environmental management, economic development, and governance.

ALP was a research project that assessed the legislative performance of the 8th and 9th Philippine Congress across selected variables and indicators to determine legislative accomplishments against constitutional directives and to provide inputs to legislative agendas through legislators, their staff, and legislation-oriented NGOs and interest groups. The study utilized the 1987 Constitution as its working premise believing it is a basic, if ideal frame of reference since it is the only document that might be considered as embodying the collective vision of Filipinos about what they aspire to become as a nation.

The NGO study traced the development of the non-governmental sector in the Philippines. It mapped-out the different NGOs and their involvement in different social sectors as well as the dynamics of their participation in local, national, and regional undertakings. Written by Dr. Segundo E. Romero and Rostum J. Bautista, this study was part of a larger region-wide project of JCIE intended to provide information on the emerging civil society in the Asia-Pacific. The output is part of a book published in 1996 by JCIE and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Emerging Civil Society in the Asia Pacific Community edited by Tadashi Yamamoto.

A project that sought to determine the extent and dynamics of popular participation through NGOs and POs as provided for in the 1991 Local Government Code. Making use of selected local case studies and insights from learnings generated through key informant interviews and roundtables, the project was expected to establish conclusions about the nature of local government administration in the Philippines especially after 1991. Partial outputs were indicated in the GO-NGO Watch and Salinlakas publications. The project was funded by the Ford Foundation.

This is a pilot study that sought to determine the extent and manner in which people empowerment may have occurred over the last five years in the Philippines. Through 14 case studies of people's organizations throughout the country, the study documented the dynamic and structural manifestations of people empowerment in the country at the organizational level, and presented a profile of the political attitudes and orientations of NGOs at the individual level.

Development and Security in Southeast Asia Echo Seminar. 19 March 1999, Baguio City, Philippines. Supported by CIDA and IDRC.

Sixth ASEAN ISIS Colloquium on Human Rights: The Economic Crisis and ASEAN: The Human Rights Dimension," 12-14 February 1999, Edsa Shangri-la, Manila, Philippines. Supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Asia-Pacific Security Forum: A Roundtable on the Security Implications of the East Asian Financial Crisis. 19-20 December 1998, Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Manila, Philippines. Co-sponsored with Institute for National Policy Research (INPR), Taipei, Pacific Forum/Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Honolulu, and French Institute for International Relations (IFRI), Paris.

Development and Security in Southeast Asia Echo Seminar, 15-17 December 1998, Edsa Shangri-la, Manila, Philippines. Supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Tenth CSCAP Steering Committee Meeting, 14 December 1998, Edsa Shangri-la, Manila, Philippines. Supported by ISIS-Malaysia

Engaging Myanmar in East Asia. 28-29 November 1998, Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Manila, Philippines. Jointly organized with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Development and Security in Southeast Asia Echo Seminar. September 1998, Davao City, Philippines. Supported by CIDA and IDRC.

Asia Pacific Agenda Project: Engaging Russia in Asia Pacific. 28-29 May 1998, Plantation Bay, Cebu, Philippines. Jointly organized by the Institute for Strategic and Development Studies (ISDS) and Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE).

Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Working Group on Transnational Crime. 23-24 May 1998, Galleria Suites, Ortigas, Pasig City. Supported by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Japan-ASEAN Intellectual Exchange Open Symposium: Japan and ASEAN Toward a New Dimension of Cooperation. 4-5 March 1998, Manila Diamond Hotel. Jointly organized with the Government of Japan, in cooperation with the Government of the Philippines and supported by Japan-ASEAN Exchange Project and Indochina Development Fund.

Fifth ASEAN ISIS Colloquium on Human Rights: Assessing 50 years of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. 15-16 February 1998, Manila Hotel. Supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

ASEAN Experts on the Law of the Sea Meeting. 26-28 November 1997, Manila Hotel, Manila City.

Development and Security in Southeast Asia Conference. 10-13 December 1997, Plantation Bay, Cebu City.

Symposium on Common Security Interests: Europe and ASEAN. 21 November 1997, Shangri-la Edsa Plaza Hotel. Supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF).

Promoting Trust and Confidence in Southeast Asia: Cooperation and Conflict Avoidance. 16-19 October 1997, The Manila Hotel, Manila City. In cooperation with the Pacific Forum/CSIS.

Asia Pacific Security Forum. 1-3 September 1997, Grand Hotel, Taipei. This conference is hosted by the Institute for National Policy Research, Taiwan and co-sponsored by The Pacific Forum/CSIS, US, Institute for Strategic and Development Studies, Philippines, and Institute Français Des Relations Internationales, France.

Political and Security Implications of an Expanded ASEAN. 19-21 May 1997, Dusit Hotel Nikko, Makati. Co-organized with the ASEAN Defense Technology Exchange (ADTEX) 97.

Fourth ASEAN-ISIS Colloquium on Human Rights: The Rule of Law, the Judiciary and Human Rights Implementation in ASEAN. 14-15 February 1997, The Manila Hotel, Manila. Supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Security and Regional Order and the Role of External Powers. 1-3 December 1996, Inter-Continental Hotel, Makati City. Co-organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF).

Workshop on Recent Developments in the South China Sea. 25 October 1996, Shangri-La's EDSA Plaza Hotel, Mandaluyong City. In cooperation with ASEAN-ISIS and National Security Council.

Fifth ASEAN Young Leaders Forum: External Influences on Foreign Policy: ASEAN Perspectives. 22-24 October 1996, Shangri-La's EDSA Plaza Hotel, Mandaluyong City. Supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Friends of ISDS.

Third ASEAN Colloquium on Human Rights: Human Rights, Labor and Refugees. 11-12 February 1996, Shangri-La's EDSA Plaza Hotel. Supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Development and Security in Southeast Asia Workshop. 13-16 December 1995, Shangri-La's EDSA Plaza Hotel, Mandaluyong City. Jointly organized with the Canadian Consortium on Asia Pacific Security (CANCAPS) and supported by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Carolina G. Hernandez and Gina R. Pattugalan, eds. Transnational and Regional Security in the Asia Pacific. Quezon City: CSCAP and ISDS, 1999.

Jorge V. Tigno and Maria Ela L. Atienza. International Labor Migration and the Prospects for Regional Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific: Southeast Asian Migrants in Taiwan. Quezon City: ISDS, 1998.

Carolina G. Hernandez, ed. Japan-ASEAN Intellectual Exchange Open Symposium: Japan and ASEAN Toward a New Dimension of Cooperation. Quezon City: ISDS, 1998.

Carolina G. Hernandez and Ralph A. Cossa, eds. Security Implications of Conflict in the South China Sea: Perspective from the Asia-Pacific. Quezon City: ISDS, 1997.

Security and Regional Order and the Role of External Powers. Quezon City: Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) and ISDS, 1997.

Common Security Interests: Europe and ASEAN. Quezon City: Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) and ISDS, 1997.

Gochoco-Bautista, Maria Socorro and Faustino, Jaime. AFTA and The Philippines: National Economic Policy-Making and Regional Economic Cooperation. Quezon City: ISDS, 1994.

Carolina G. Hernandez, Ph.D.
President

Malaya C. Ronas, M.A.
Director
Regional and International Studies

Herman Joseph Kraft, Ph.D. (cand.)
Director (on leave)
Strategic and Security Studies

Jorge V. Tigno, M.A.
Director
National Development and Local Governance

Joy Abrenica, Ph.D.

Maria Ela Atienza, M.A.

Agnes Bailen, M.A., Ll.B.

Ma. Socorro Gochoco-Bautista, Ph.D.

Pia C. Bennagen, M.A.

Aileen Baviera, Ph.D. (cand.)

Antonio Contreras, Ph.D.

Eliseo Cubol, M.A.

Manuel Difuntorum, M.A.

Rolando Fernando, M.A.

Grace Gorospe-Jamon, Ph.D.

Aleli Kraft, Ph.D.

Ruth Lusterio, M.A.

Francisco Magno, Ph.D.

Amado Mendoza, M.A.

Noel M. Morada, M.A., M.P.A. , Ph.D. (cand.)

Alan Ortiz, Ph.D.

Reynaldo R. Ty, Ph.D.(cand.)