The Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO) was established in 1956 and it is the successor to the Institute of World Economy and International Affairs, which existed from 1925 to 1948. Soon after the establishment, the Institute gained the reputation of an important centre of integrated fundamental and applied socio-economic, political and policy-oriented research on the analysis of the main trends of world development; and the Institute is unique in this way in our country. As time went by, the Institute gave birth to a series of problem-regional research institutions – the Institute for the USA and Canadian Studies, the Institute for African Studies, the Institute of the International Labor Movement, etc. However, IMEMO still remains one-of-a-kind in terms of the scale and complexity of the research on the scientific issues by the analytical center.

Since 1956, the Institute has been headed by eminent scholars and prominent political figures, Members of the Academy of Sciences: Anushavan A. Arzumanyan, Nikolay N. Inozemtsev, Alexander N. Yakovlev, Evgeniy M. Primakov, Vladlen A. Martynov, Nodari A. Simoniya, Alexander A. Dynkin.

The primary mission for the IMEMO scientists has always been in the comprehensive investigation of the real international processes, the mechanisms of the market economy and features of the political systems of foreign countries. The Institute has considerable expertise in the analysis of the world economy and international relations; it gave a good start to the studies of various countries of the world. The domestic political science and economic theory have made a considerable breakthrough under the guidance of IMEMO; the predictive and analytical base for political decisions has also been developed. The focus of research of the economists and political scientists of the Institute has always been on the issues with the trends of globalization, new challenges to the international security, and the qualitative changes in the economic and political system of the society.

The Institute employs more than 318 researchers. Among them there are: 7 Members of the Academy of Sciences – Aleksey Arbatov, Vladimir Baranowskiy, Gennadiy Chufrin, Alexander Dynkin, Natalia Ivanova, Vasily Mikheev, Revold Entov; 9 Corresponding Members of the Academy of Sciences – Vladimir Avtonomov, Sergey Afontsev, Petr Cherkasov, Rostislav Kapelyushnikov, Ivan Korolev, Feodor Voytolovsky, Irina Semenenko, Stanislav Zhukov, Irina Zvyagelskaya; 53 Doctors of Sciences and 143 PhD. Many members of the modern Russian political elites and experts, journalists and leaders of the media business have worked at IMEMO over the time.

The detailed history of IMEMO is presented in the books written by P. Cherkasov:
IMEMO. Portrait against the background of the Epoch. Moscow: Ves Mir, 2004, 572 p.,
IMEMO. History overview. Moscow: Ves Mir, 2016, 872 p.,
and in the publications in the journal «World Economy and International Relations» ¹¹ 4 to 7, 11, 12 in 2002, ¹¹ 1 , 2, 7, 9 in 2003, ¹¹ 2-5, 7-9 in 2004.

On August 2015 the Institute has changed its name to the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations to commemorate the name of its former director academician Yevgeny Primakov, who led the Institute from 1985 till 1989.