[5] IFAIR was founded in September 2010, by German National Academic Foundation fellows Hanna Pfeifer, Alexander Pyka, Lukas Rudolph, Susanne Schwarz and David Schlutz.
[7] IFAIR set out to invite students and young professionals with an interest in different IR-topics to submit relevant research articles, opinion pieces and literature reviews which were to be published and discussed online.
Among other things, the think tank embraced the objective of connecting students of international relations with policy practitioners and experts from the field.
[9] In order to achieve geographic coherence among the activities pursued under each of the three pillars, IFAIR is further divided into eight regional directorates (EU & Europe, Russia & CIS, Middle East and Northern Africa, South & East Asia, North America, Latin America & the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Global Affairs) which are coordinated by up to two regional directors.
[10] In terms of its operational outlook, IFAIR is managed by an executive board which oversees three thematic areas: public relations, web and resource development.
[11] The initiative also has an advisory board, which is made up of key personalities of international politics such as the chairman of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger and the Secretary General of the European External Action Service Helga Schmid.