In 1994 the Institute contributed to set up the Mediterranean Study Commission (MeSCo), a network of Mediterranean people and institutions dealing with international and security affairs. After the inaugural meeting organised by the IAI in Rome in 1994, the Egyptian Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (CPSS) organised the second meeting in Alexandria in 1995. The third meeting, organised by the Portuguese Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IEEI), was held in Sesimbra in June 1996.

The project analyses the nature of societal change in the western Mediterranean region (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) and its likely impact on transatlantic relations. The project, which started in the second half of 2010, is being conducted by IAI in cooperation with the Center for the US and Europe of the Brookings Institution, in Washington and the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute (EUI), in Florence.