It’s about IntellIgence, stupId. the launchIng of the EuropEan Journal of IntEllIgEncE StudIES
Marc Cools, Patrick Van Calster and Herman Matthijs
Discussing, preparing, creating and launching a new European scientific journal is an amazing experience. Afterwards it is difficult to pinpoint who had the original idea or even where and when it all started. It feels like it just emerged out of many diverse interactions. It got its shape and structure through and in many enthusiastic responses as well as critical ones. The Belgian owned and Antwerp based publisher Intersentia immediately agreed to publish this journal and put a lot of efforts in the professionalisation of it. As members of the Belgian and Dutch scientific community we are proud to give birth to the first number of the European Journal of Intelligence Studies or EJIS, which is an online-refereed journal, published in the English language. The Journal is made available through www.ejis.eu and www.jurisquare.com, which guarantees an immediate and wide dissemination and at the end of each year all online articles are published in book format and sent to the subscribers. The mission statement and scope of the European Journal of Intelligence Studies is to reach the private and public intelligence community in Europe and abroad by providing them high-level academic information with practical relevance. Public actors such as police, customs services and other interest groups within the public administration need information on legal topics, historical reviews, managerial trends and an overview of issues. The same is true for the private security sector and industry. The European Journal of Intelligence Studies will include several topics. Due to the definition of the intelligence studies concept as an academic discipline, differing from the classical police and/or security studies, they will stress on historical events, biographies, case studies and historic overviews in the range of intelligence. Also the analysis of phenomena subject to intelligence studies such as terrorism, espionage, political and environmental subversion and radicalism, extremism, proliferation, religious fundamentalism and organised crime are covered. The securing of the industrial and scientific potential as well as the critical infrastructures is subject to our interest. The legal framework and the democratic accountability, the control on intelligence services and the privatisation of intelligence services will be subject to the contributions.
EJIS, Volume 1 (2007)
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Marc Cools, Patrick Van Calster and Herman Matthijs
Finally, attention will be given to the management of intelligence services including (new) intelligence techniques. Book reviews and general information on important events are also part of the journal. Our international editorial board meets the following characteristics: an academic profile with field experience, an international profile, an equal representation from major European countries and a three-layer structure. Steering editorial board, editorial committee and a network of referees. Each editorial board member is responsible for a specific field of interest or topic: history, legal framework, management of intelligence services, analysis of phenomena, background information and analysis on international developments and events and regional developments. Every article is refereed and screened on its scientific originality, practical relevance and thoroughness. Referees’ reports are anonymous and confidential. Together with the journal an international conference on invitation will be organised by the steering editorial committee. This conference will take place on a yearly basis, each year by another member of the editorial committee in another European country. The purpose of these yearly conferences is to build a community around the journal. We are convinced that the launching of the European Journal of Intelligence Studies contributes to the scientific as well as the professional intelligence community. Generally, doing scientific research is exploring the unknown, doing scientific research in the intelligence branch in particular is exploring the covered and secret unknown, which makes the adventure so much more amazing and fascinating.
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Intersentia