Today, SIPRI celebrates the launch of SIPRI Yearbook 2019 by making all editions from 1969 to 2016 available for free download. Originally published with the aim to ‘produce a factual and balanced account of a controversial subject—the arms race and attempts to stop it’, the SIPRI Yearbook has evolved to cover a variety of topics within armaments, disarmament and international security and has become an indispensable reference work.
Explore the SIPRI Yearbook archive.
50-day social media campaign
Last month, SIPRI embarked on a 50-day social media campaign leading up to today’s launch of the complete back catalogue of the SIPRI Yearbook. The campaign highlights moments in the Yearbook’s history including cover redesigns, publisher changes, new databases, technological advances, defining world events and the book’s significance to those who worked with it. In doing so, it utilizes film, GIFs, photographs, quotes and information from various editions to reach SIPRI’s global audiences across its social media platforms.
An introductory film featuring SIPRI Director Dan Smith sets the tone for the campaign, reiterating the importance of the data and analysis found in the Yearbook and the authority of the publication on the world stage. Graphics, such as the intricate cross-section of a US air-launched cruise missile (1978) or the map of proposed changes for the CFE Treaty flank zone realignment (1996), illustrate technological advancement and the core relationship between data analysis and data visualization found in the publication.
Publishing the SIPRI Yearbook
Connie Wall, SIPRI Publications Manager from 1970–2007, contributes a special statement describing her time working at the Institute and on the Yearbook. Dominic Byatt, Publisher Social Sciences & Humanities at Oxford University Press, recounts his first days working at OUP in 1993 and the relevance of the Yearbook over the decades. He describes it as ‘a milestone of my career and a highlight of my publishing year’ and advocates for its continuation ‘long may it be so. The world needs it.’
Through any progression—or regression—of armaments, disarmament and international security, the SIPRI Yearbook remains a source for expert analysis, factual information and timely discussion, and the independent resource on global security since 1969.