jipss - acipss

ACIPSS
JIPSS
Siegfried Beer, Martin Moll
EDITORIAL
5 YEARS ACIPSS – 5 ISSUES JIPSS
Siegfried Beer,
Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 / 2009, 5-6
Mag. et Dr. phil., born 1948 in Scheibbs, Lower Austria,
is professor for late modern and contemporary history at
the University of Graz.
Contact: siegfried.beer@uni-graz.at
Martin Moll,
geboren 1961 in Graz, Studium Geschichte und Germa-
nistik an der Universität Graz, Promotion 1987, Habilita-
tion für Neuere Geschichte und Zeitgeschichte (19. und
20. Jahrhundert) 2003.
Kontakt: martin.moll@uni-graz.at
The Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda
and Security Studies (ACIPSS) was founded in
May 2004. It has managed to survive its first five
years of childhood, despite parental incertitude.
Its mother-function has from the very beginning
been assumed by the Institute of History at Karl-
Franzens-University Graz, Austria, where it is
affiliated. Its volatile father-relationship is to the
university at large, even though the leadership
of the Faculty of the Humanities has become a
reliable mainstay of support, both moral and financial.
This is gratefully and publicly acknowledged.
Nevertheless, “organigramically” we
remain in limbo. ACIPSS has developed into a
modestly-sized undertaking. It relies heavily on
the selfless commitment of no more than a dozen
people, variously engaged in the initiatives and
activities we have in 2004 set out to pursue. Our
mission, as pronounced in the first issue of our
Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security
Studies (JIPSS), has remained unaltered: to
bring together the three pillars addressed in hybrid
fashion. This concept may best be reflected
in the make-up of our journal which is here presented
in its 5 th issue.
Scientific periodical literature, an invention
of the 19 th century, appears to be an endangered
species in the 21 st century. Publishing
a semi-annual journal has become a multi-
faceted challenge: organizationally, intellectually,
and foremost financially, in an age of cutbacks,
profiling and focussed expertise. At the same
time the need for the sciences to go public finds
wider recognition, both in the academic environment
and in society at large. This is where
the ACIPSS team and the editors of JIPSS put
their emphasis: reaching the community of national
and international specialists and at the
same time appealing to a larger, non-academic
audience interested in our topics. Naturally,
this has proved challenging and difficult, both
in terms of time and energy expended and in
terms of response through feedback and journal
subscription. Recent events and discussions
in Austria (particularly the Zilk and Schulmeister
affairs) have contributed to alerting the
media and the public to our work. The semi-
annual ACIPSS Workshops and our weekly digital
ACIPSS Newsletter reach a growing number
of local, national and even international citizenry.
This is encouraging and strengthens our resolve
to continue with our mission and endeavours
in the future. Reaching this modest anniversary
connected to number 5 invigorates us to look and
plan ahead for the next five years.
Im Grunde stellen wir unser Licht unter den Scheffel:
Fünf JIPSS-Hefte klingen weniger imposant
als die damit vorgelegten nahezu 1.000 Seiten
wissenschaftlicher Aufsätze, Buchbesprechungen
und praxisnaher Beiträge. Allen vorangegangen
5