Founded in late 2001, IDS is a national security consulting firm with both government and private sector clients. Since 2006, IDS has emerged as the leader in interagency, non-lethal, and “smart power” training. The US military has turned to our team of former senior-level defense, development and diplomacy officials to serve as the primary interagency/PRT trainers for maneuver units deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq. Our team is responsible for creating and shaping state-of-the-art curricula, programs of instruction, training materials, and handbooks, all in the fields of counterinsurgency, post-conflict operations, civil-military relations, and non-kinetic operations.

IDS personnel have built a strong reputation for their unparalleled depth of multi-disciplinary expertise in the 3Ds - defense, development, and diplomacy. We maintain an extensive network of interagency and smart power experts who have recently served in complex operations environments. Many of our interagency subject matter experts (SMEs) have recently returned from senior-level assignments in Iraq or Afghanistan, working for organizations such as the Department of State, USAID, Army Civil Affairs, US military, NSC, NGOs, and the private sector. In addition, we maintain a pool of expert Afghan and Iraqi bilingual-bicultural trainers, advisors, and role-players; most are proficient in Pashto, Dari, Farsi, Urdu, or Arabic, as well as English.