The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague is a unique, independent and international graduate school in the social sciences. The Institute of Social Studies was established in the aftermath of World War II at a time when there was widespread concern in Europe about reconstruction and when decolonization had been set in motion in India, Pakistan, Ceylon and then Indonesia. The Dutch government set up a development institute, the Institute of Social Studies, in 1952. It was the first of its kind in Europe, an innovative and far-reaching move that was to prove well ahead of its time. As in Britain about a decade later, the Dutch were primarily concerned with the potential loss of influence and markets in their former colonies and a traini