IIST was originally founded in London, England in 1993 as The Iraqi Cultural Forum (ICF), a research group that organized academic conferences and seminars to study Iraq and the wider Middle East. The ICF was initiated by a host of London-Paris based Iraqi scholars and writers, supported by Birkbeck College and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London University. After the 2003
demise of the Ba'ath regime, the ICF made the decision to move to its native land, Iraq. It was renamed, the Iraqi Institute for Strategic Studies (IIST).