IPALMO was founded in 1971 in Rome by a group of policy strategists, trades union leaders, politicians, journalists, writers and others in their desire to create a forum in Italy for closer focus on the problems of the developing world.

IPALMO is an international research institute whose initial aim was the study of political and economic scenarios in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. But following worldwide evolutions in recent years, this mandate was expanded to include international affairs in general, Asia, the transition process in Central and Eastern Europe and the main issues linked to the globalization process. Over the years, IPALMO has raised awareness in Italy of affairs in Africa, the Americas and Asia and has stimulated debate between political forces and civil society on Italian foreign and cooperation policy in relation to developing and emerging countries. The pluralistic character of the Institute has guaranteed representation from a wide political and cultural spectrum.

The research interests of IPALMO have gone through a number of stages. During the first phase, which lasted up until the early 1980s, the Institute primarily addressed issues of decolonization in Africa, the fight for democracy in Latin America wherever there were authoritarian military regimes and the creation of a more equal and just economic relationship between industrialized and non-industrialized countries. In its second phase - from the early 1980s until 1992 - IPALMO focused on international development cooperation policy and the need to equip Italy with the proper tools to assist less developed countries. After having contributed to the debate and subsequent drafting of Italy's first structured reform of development cooperation in 1979, IPALMO was commissioned by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to organize two national conferences - in 1985 and 1990 - on international development cooperation. The conferences, which brought together all those involved in cooperation policy, provided a wide-ranging forum for debate, whose ultimate aim was to make development policy more effective and streamlined. In 1992, IPALMO published its first manual on "ex-post" evaluation of completed development assistance projects. In the current and third phase, which coincides with changes in international politics in the early 1990s, the Italian development cooperation crisis and the sharp reduction in Italy's Official Development Assistance (ODA), IPALMO sought to differentiate its sources of funding and expand the scope of its activities through initiatives involving the private sector. In addition, it strengthened its interest in Community affairs and issues relating to the integration process, including in particular the relationship between development and integration, problems of enlargement of the EU and the CEECs, and the implementation of foreign policy and a common defence.

The Institute also expanded its field of initiatives with the European Community, local organizations and businesses. In parallel with IPALMO's traditional "antenna" in Milan, which opened in 1998 and is housed today at the "Globus et Locus" Association, and with the Institute's increased interest in strengthening its ties with the European Union, a new "antenna" was opened in November of 2001 in Brussels at the Italian Foreign Trade Institute (ICE). This antenna will allow the Institute to follow EU events and happenings closely and to intensify its relations with Community institutions, the Italian representation at the EU and, more generally, with all the international institutions in northern Europe.

In recent years, IPALMO has carried out initiatives in conjunction with the following bodies: the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the European Commission; the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU); both lower and upper Houses of the Italian Parliament (Chamber of Deputies and Senate); the University of the Mediterranean (UNIMED); the Milan Chamber of Commerce; the Italian National Association of Electrotechnical and Electronic Businesses (INTEL/ANIE); the Regions of Latium, Lombardia and Tuscany; the Eastern University Institute of Naples (IUO); the Office of the Prime Minister; PROMOS; and several Italian universities and organisations. Currently, IPALMO's main areas of interest and research are: regional integration processes in Latin America, Africa and the Middle Eastern Mediterranean countries; their relations with the European Union and economic integration with special reference to MERCOSUR and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership; food security and sustainable development; hunger and the world distribution of food; water resources and desertification; the renewal of the Lomé Convention; Italian development cooperation policy on a global scale; the internationalization of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SME) in developing countries. IPALMO has organized conferences and seminars both at national and international levels on each of these themes.

For the past 29 years, IPALMO has been publishing a bi-monthly journal, Politica Internazionale (International Politics), which is a vital source of information and insight for researchers and experts into ongoing political and socio-economic problems in developing countries within the wider context of international relations.The journal is published 6 times a year, comprising a total of approximately 1,300 pages.