HELGA HAFTENDORN

My first encounter with SIPRI was in the late 1960s. As a young research fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations, I had been asked whether I would like to cooperate with the Institute's project on the international arms trade and provide data on German arms exports. I was delighted to accept, the more so as I was aware of Alva Myrdal's role in establishing SIPRI. I had long admired her for her active role in promoting international arms control and disarmament.

Arms export was a hot issue in Germany in those days. A few years earlier news of a top secret arms deal with Israel was revealed, stunning the country and estranging the Arab countries. Although the opposition thereafter tried to circumscribe arms exports with a rider to the budget, outlawing deliveries to 'areas of tension', this didn't have much effect on clandestine deals. Military planes ostensibly supplied to Iran ended up in Pakistan, and others given to Italy in India. Only after the change to the Brandt-Scheel government in 1969 were controls tightened and commercial sales by 'merchants of death' made more difficult.

When I later published a book with some of the data collected originally for SIPRI, I got into trouble. One of the most notorious German arms merchants threatened me with reprisals if I continued to disclose what he called 'secrets'-although I had got all my data from open sources. He was later tried for illegal arms sales. The reason I wanted to publish the German story of arms exports as a separate book was that I wanted it to have a political impact and stimulate further restraints. I was not completely happy with the SIPRI method of just registering the facts: I also wanted to analyse the motives of suppliers and recipients, and look into the political consequences. This was not done at SIPRI at that time. I guess the Institute was aware that it might run into political problems if it did.

When I joined the SIPRI Governing Board at the end of 1999, the Institute's emphasis had shifted from 'bean counting' to political analysis. The Yearbook no longer serves as a register for security-related events, such as arms transfers, military expenditure, etc., but also tries to analyse the most pertinent developments in international security in a thorough way with no slackening in the quality of the data. Of the most recently published Yearbook (2005), two-thirds is devoted to analysis-without neglecting the truism that any explanation, to be relevant, needs to be based on solid evidence. From serving as a 'tool box' of data for the researcher to draw upon, the Yearbook- and with it the whole Institute-has become a major centre of academic expertise on peace and security. Alyson J. K. Bailes' expert leadership has contributed much to placing SIPRI at the centre of today's security debate and has made its voice heard.

I wish SIPRI all the best on its 40th birthday, and I hope it will continue to work as one of the world's most renowned centres of expertise on peace and security!