ARTHUR H. WESTING

I begin with the relevant statistics: It was my great good fortune to be invited to work at SIPRI on four separate occasions for a total of almost eight years-originally under the directorship of Frank Barnaby, then Frank Blackaby and finally for a time under Walther Stützle. For much of this tenure at SIPRI my work was sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with my serving as the Director of its project on Peace, Security, and Environment (at first called Military Activities and the Human Environment). This novel SIPRI-UNEP relationship was for much of the time most ably coordinated on behalf of UNEP by Naigzy Gebremedhin. My always helpful contact in the European (Geneva) office of UNEP was with Kerstin (Kim) Oldfelt. During my times at SIPRI, I prepared a number of reports, variously for UNESCO (together with fellow researcher Malvern Lumsden), the UN General Assembly (together with fellow researcher Jozef Goldblat), PRIO, the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, Miljöcentrum, the Ocean Institute, and so forth. But of far greater importance, I was the author of three SIPRI books, the editor and co-author of five additional SIPRI books, and the author of three SIPRI Yearbook chapters. Moreover, my list of SIPRI publications reveals quite nicely the evolution of my concerns.

I must declare at the outset that my years at SIPRI were clearly the most professionally rewarding and personally satisfying of my scholarly career. It gave me the untrammeled opportunity to learn, grow and flourish in a hitherto largely unexplored field of research, one of major interest to me and of growing importance to society. My educational and professional (experiential) background had provided a solid basis for this work, and SIPRI provided a scholar's dream to pursue it. It all came to happen owing to two extraordinarily supportive directors (initially Frank Barnaby and then Frank Blackaby), a number of truly helpful colleagues of diverse backgrounds (especially Jozef Goldblat, Malvern Lumsden and Sverre Lodgaard), an unparalleled infrastructure consisting of a superb war/peace library (made most useful to me especially through the assistance of Janet Meurling), incredibly fi ne editorial help (headed by Connie Wall and with cheerfully brilliant support particularly from Billie Bielckus), dedicated research assistance (by the incomparably helpful Carol Barta), and welcoming administrative staff (including the ever gracious Katarina Frändberg and the very capable Cynthia Loo)-all of it underlain by unstintingly generous material support.

Other long-term, transient or visiting researchers of my time who added significantly to the scholarly and collegial atmosphere that made SIPRI so special for me included especially Ragnhild Ferm-Hellgren, Elisabeth Sköns, Allan S. Krass, Julian Perry Robinson, Nikolai Smirnov, Karlheinz Lohs and Erhard Geissler. And responsible for offering moral support were not only the researchers and staff referred to, but also a number of the SIPRI Governing Board members (coming to mind immediately, Chairmen Rolf Edberg and Rolf Björnerstedt).

Two of SIPRI's longest serving staff members, Carol Barta (left) and Connie Wall at a SIPRI gathering in 1974

Being SIPRI's first ecologist (moreover, one with no formal training in political science, foreign affairs or international law) and one who had not previously worked in the arcana of 'peace research', it was amazing to me how quickly I was made to feel at home in this, the world's premier peace research institute (albeit one that had already been pursuing some technical projects devoted to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and warfare). Indeed, with the knowledge, wisdom and encouragement so willingly imparted especially by those I have singled out, I was during the course of my time at SIPRI able to become a recognized pioneer in the new (and subsequently burgeoning) field of environmental/military interactions, soon morphing into a discipline known as 'environ-mental security'. My SIPRI monographs were very favourably received in many governmental, inter-governmental, academic and military circles. Indeed, in time those studies fostered a large amount of subsequent research, at PRIO and elsewhere. They also seemed to be in part responsible for the developing UN interest in that field, notably by UNESCO, UNIDIR and the General Assembly (e.g., via its System-wide Medium-term Environment Programme, through which UNEP began to collaborate with SIPRI). And as one example of a policy change fostered by my efforts, the Australian Government attributed to those efforts its formal renunciation in 1986 of biological warfare, even in retaliation.

As to my post-SIPRI years, I am certainly pleased to be able to report that the expertise gained, and contacts made, while at the Institute (combined with its then unique UNEP relationship) have made possible a most stimulating subsequent consulting career in international environmental security. I not only continued my relationship with UNEP, but also accepted a variety of subsequent assignments, for example, from PRIO, UNIDIR, the ICRC, the the World Bank, UNESCO, the World Conservation Union, the International Council of Scientific Unions, the International Organization for Migration, NATO, the UN Desertification Secretariat, the European Peace University, Durham University, Evangelische Akademie Loccum, the South Korean Government, and especially the Government of Eritrea.

Finally, the friendships that my wife, Carol, and I made while at SIPRI are a legacy that to this day continues to enrich our lives enormously.