[3] Its creation was originally funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in order to provide expert analysis on issues pertaining to the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union.

[1] Prominent social scientists involved with CIS include Lucian Pye, Eugene Skolnikoff, William Kaufmann, Walt Rostow, Ithiel de Sola Pool, and Carl Kaysen.

[4] Many prominent security specialists in government, think tanks, the military, and academia, including Geoffrey Kemp, Daniel Byman, Ken Pollack, and William Durch, undertook their doctoral studies in SSP.

[7] In addition, the center organizes Seminar XXI, a yearly educational program for senior military officers, government and NGO officials, and other leaders in U.S. national security policy.

[13][14] Other individuals have spent weeks or months at the center, such as Ranil Wickremasinghe, former prime minister of Sri Lanka; David Miliband, former foreign secretary of the U.K.; and Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former reform member of the Majlis of Iran.