Constituents of IDSS include the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) and the Asian Programme for Negotiation and Conflict Management (APNCM).
On 1 Jan 2007, the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies was formed, and IDSS became an institute within the school, focussing on security research. The teaching functions were taken over by RSIS.