The Institute for Stability and Development (ISD) is an international think tank  whose goal is to help vulnerable border regions and other communities affected by conflict or political, religious or ethnic tension to achieve lasting stability and promote sustainable development.

ISD draws upon and continues work initiated by EastWest Institute since the early 1990s. In particular, it is taking over responsibility for a number of highly innovative and successful ventures in south-eastern Europe. These have focused on conflict prevention and transfrontier co-operation in a region where conflict is a recent memory and borders are new or newly opened. Current activities include support to border communities in Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, who are working to try to overcome the effects of the recent conflicts that have affected them all and to continue to try to live, work and trade together across the new divides created by and in response to Kosovo’s declaration of independence, as well as smaller initiatives across south-eastern Europe. All of these are held together through a large body of policy work undertaken on such issues as freedom of movement of goods and people, the interaction of local government and civil society in support of regional integration and development.

The principle approach used by ISD is that of transfrontier co-operation. ISD uses the term transfrontier co-operation rather than cross-border co-operation as its activities sometimes involve work across frontiers that are not traditional state borders. They may include supporting efforts that reach out across ethnic, religious or linguistic divides within a state or territory. Working across borders with local, border region communities in recently established states, or states divided from one another for long periods by ideological differences.

In all its work, ISD seeks to work in support of initiatives originating in communities, and focuses on initiatives that are capable of taking root and contributing to lasting stability and development.

As well as working alongside the communities at local level, ISD works to influence key decision-makers in national capitals and international organizations in favour of the border communities and affected populations with whom it works, and to draw attention to their needs and aspirations, thus taking a “bottom-up and top down approach”.