Time for change. I am stepping down as Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) at the end of this month, having completed the two five-year terms that are the maximum allowed for this position. 

In my place, the institute has recruited a distinguished scholar and diplomat, Karim Haggag, who is leaving his post as Professor of Practice in the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University of Cairo. He has had a distinguished career as a researcher, academic and diplomat. His fields of expertise include arms control, international security, the role of force, and conflict management and resolution.

It has been an extraordinary honour to lead SIPRI during the last decade. It has been, as readers of this blog over the years do not need reminding, a bad decade for global security. Each year in the introductory chapter of the SIPRI Yearbook, I have had the task of summarising what’s going wrong (and the few things that have gone right) in a generally deteriorating global security scene. So it seems a bit strange to say, but on the bright side…

However, it is true that the darkening global security horizon has been met by increased awareness and interest, a desire for reliable information, careful and fair-minded analysis, and policy options based on evidence rather than sweeping ideological preference and headline-grabbing simplifications. SIPRI, seeking to support and participate in a global conversation on these tough and urgent issues, has grown in the breadth of issues it addresses, the depth with which it addresses them, and the cogency of its research and reflections. There has likewise been growth in the size of audience it has reached and of the constituency it has served. The times have been difficult but the work of the institute has been outstanding and I am proud to have been associated with the standards of excellence that SIPRI’s researchers have created.

For myself, I am not in any sense signing off. I will carry on working, focussing on researching and writing about ecological security, global risk and world order, and also continuing to work to facilitate dialogue in these difficult times.

And maybe there will even be a few more blog posts than I found time for in the last half year or so.