Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik / German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and the Federal Institute for Russian, East European and International Studies, Cologne (BIOst) agree to cooperate on the development of the SWP’s database. This was the beginning of the FIV, to which 11 German research institutes now belong.

The German Federal Ministry for Research and Technology finances a three-year project to merge the separate databases of the SWP and the German Overseas Institute, Hamburg (DÜI).

The decision is made at a meeting in the Federal Chancellory, attended by representatives of seven federal ministries, to continue the development of the FIV and provide the financial means to enable further institutes to participate.

The Federal Foreign Office takes over the continuous financing of the FIV as an ongoing project.

Public access to the database under the name “World Affairs Online” (WAO) via the host European Space Agency (this service is no longer available)

Start of European cooperation in what was later to become the European Information Network on International Relations and Area Studies (EINIRAS).

Public access to World Affairs Online (WAO) via the GBI’s wiso-database packet.

The Federal Ministry of Research and the Federal Chancellory finance a review of FIV organisation and management by the management consultancy firm Arthur Andersen. The outcome is positive for the Network and also for its planned European expansion.

Statute passed which establishes the FIV’s organizational structure with executive committee, chairperson and annual general meeting of members. The SWP is named as coordinating Institute. The FIV remains an unincorporated organization.

SWP moves form Ebenhausen/Isar to Berlin and merges with the Federal Institute for Russian, East European and International Studies, Cologne (BIOst) and the Südost-Institut, Munich’s contemporary affairs section.

Previous project financing is replaced by an annual grant from the Federal Chancellory, anchored in the SWP’s budget.

The EINIRAS Database Network (EDN), a publicly accessible database of journal articles in which 7 European databases (IBLK, COE, SIPRI, RIIA, FIIA, CIDOP, IIR Prague) participate, is installed on the Council of Europe’s server.

With financial aid from the DFG (German Research Foundation), access to the database becomes available through the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue (KVK). The database forms part of the IBLK-Meta-catalogue, together with the OPACs of the German union catalogues.

Several DÜI member institutes utilise the IBLK database to participate in the establishment of virtual libraries (Menalib, Cibera).

The database switches to the multilingual European Thesaurus International Relations and Area Studies, a project developed in cooperation with EINIRAS members.

FIV founder and long-standing spokesman Dietrich Seydel is succeeded by Michael Kluck, who takes over as spokesman and head of information services at SWP.

Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) / German Development Institute (Bonn) joins the FIV as 12th member institute.