The International Academy of Social Sciences is a learned society currently headed by H.E. Alfredo Palacio, 44th President of the Republic of Ecuador and H.E. General Chavalit Yonchaiyudh, Former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand as Honorary Co-Presidents of the Academy. The president is H.E. Ambassador Otto F. von Feigenblatt, AMBASSADOR and Deputy Permanent Observer to the United Nations for the OIJ. A council of 50 numbered academicians is the main legislative organ of the the International Academy of Social Sciences. Numbered Academicians are elected by their peers based on their expertise and impact in their particular disciplines. Membership in the Academy is an honor reserved for top scholars in a wide variety of fields. Academicians include government officials, professors, and intellectuals. The Academy organizes seminars, conferences, and other activities in more than twenty countries.

The IASS publishes two peer-reviewed academic journals: the Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences and the Journal of Asia Pacific Studies. JAPSS was established in 2008 by a group of scholars from around the world with the purpose of promoting interdisciplinary research. The original group of scholars eventually expanded the secretariat into the International Academy of Social Sciences and added a second academic journals focused on Asia Pacific regional studies.

A restructuring of the administrative organs of the Academy took place in early 2018 with the result of the phasing out of the rank of honorary academician and the appointment of numbered academicians supported by corresponding academicians. The position of associate academician was also created to encompass former honorary academicians.

The Academy has organized many international academic conferences over the years in more than twenty countries and it is also actively engaged in academic consulting in order to promote the principles of good governance and sustainable development. In order to engage junior scholars and practitioners, the ranks of fellow and junior fellow were created in the year 2015. In 2023 the International Academy of Social Sciences signed an agreement with the Interuniversity Lecture Series for Peace, Development, and Education to co-organized academic conferences and to jointly manage the Journal of Asia Pacific Studies and the Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences.

The secretariat of the IASS is located in Albany, Georgia, USA. A permanent office for the President of the Academy and the Conference Room for meetings of the council.