The IUS is intended to be interdisciplinary in nature and has around 600 fellows in over 35 countries, who hold varying occupations in the military, academia, and the private sector.

[1] The Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society was founded in 1960 by Morris Janowitz, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.

The stated mission of the IUS is to provide independent, interdisciplinary analysis of military institutions, which "requires intellectual collaboration across university, organizational, disciplinary, theoretical, and national lines.

The IUS hosts international conferences every other year, which provide for the presentation and evaluation of new research on civil-military issues.

[3][4] The following persons are or have been President and Chair of the IUS: Burk (1993) explored the origins of the study of military sociology with a specific emphasis on the works of Janowitz and a historical review of the first 20 years of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.