Dear Members of the IIHA,

As the year is drawing to a close, I would like to inform you of recent developments in our association. Most notably, the last couple of months have brought about some changes in the composition of the board. At our last membership meeting at the Weimar conference, Prof. Dr. Michael Wala did not seek reelection to the board; the meeting elected Malte Roschinski , who has previously served as executive director of the association, to take his place on the board. Of course, Michael Wala will continue his important work as managing editor of The Journal of Intelligence History .

More recently, our Chairman, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Krieger, has decided to resign his chairmanship effective December 31, 2007. After eight years at the helm of the IIHA, Prof. Krieger feels that it is time to make room for new leadership. Dr. Shlomo Shpiro has been selected to succeed Prof. Krieger , who will continue to serve on the board. I join the board in thanking Prof. Krieger for his years of tireless dedication to the association and wish our new chairman all the best for his new task. Please find a letter from our new chairman accompanying this message.

Looking forward, the board is currently planning our next Annual Meeting, to be held in Hamburg , Germany , on the weekend of October 17-19, 2008 . The topic of the conference will be “Intelligence and Dictatorships” and I join our new chairman in encouraging you to actively participate in this event. The Call for Papers is already online at our website www.intelligence-history.org and will be sent out to all our members shortly.

Speaking of our website, I would like to draw your attention to a recent expansion of the content available online: All programs of IIHA conferences dating back to 1995 – as well as digests of papers presented at the meetings, if available – have been uploaded to the “Meetings” section. In addition, the “Resources” section now features an extensive database of book reviews published in The Journal of Intelligence History and its predecessor, the IIHSG Newsletter . If you have suggestions on how we can further expand our website to make it a valuable source of information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Last but not least, a note about membership dues : We depend on the timely payment of your membership fee to support our activities. Please note that all payments will henceforth have to be made in Euros . Our previous practice of giving members the option of paying their fees in U.S. Dollar was introduced at a time of virtual parity between the two currencies. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. I ask for your understanding that current exchange rates no longer allow us to provide this service.

In closing, let me thank all of you for continuing to support the IIHA and extend my best wishes for 2008.

Sincerely yours,

Jens Wegener

Executive Director, IIHA

Jens Wegener
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Fakultät für Geschichtswissenschaften
International Intelligence History Association
GA 4/144
44780 Bochum
Germany
E-mail: exec_director@intelligence-history.org