Recent success stories
Please find below a brief overview of the ISN's recent achievements.
Security Watch
Security Watch now serves as a key information source for many organizations and individuals. For example, Greenpeace uses our Middle East coverage, and we have assisted several western media outlets with their Southeastern Europe coverage. These include the BBC, CBC and several other TV networks as well as a major British and Danish newspaper. We have also established close collaboration with Diplomatic Courier, World Affairs Journal and swissinfo.
Special Reports
Special Reports is soon to be integrated into the public NATO website. Our independent, in-depth analyses will supplement those produced by NATO on similar topics – offering the public expanded coverage of IR issues.
ISN Taxonomy
Organizations such as Jane's Information Group, the European Defense Agency and other European defense and security organizations are in the process of either assessing or adopting our taxonomy. NewsTin, an aggregation service that develops news feeds according to our top classification branches, has also adopted several categories for its website.
Community of Content-Sharing Institutions
In the last three years, we have built up a large community of high-profile research organizations and institutions, who allow us to promote and make their content available on our site for free. Our Digital Library now includes over 26,000 research papers and reports (compared to 2,500 in early 2006).
EINIRAS
As a long-standing member of the European Information Network on International Relations and Area Studies (EINIRAS) board, the ISN re-launched the network's website and is responsible for its maintenance. EINIRAS is an association of research institutions dealing with information and documentation on international relations in research and political practice.
FIRST
Facts on International Relations and Security Trends (FIRST), a joint project between the ISN and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), has been completely redesigned to provide customers with an easier to use interface. FIRST presents facts and trends on countries around the globe. It comprises socio-demographic, military and government data and is openly accessible.
New ILIAS SCORM Editor
In autumn 2008 we presented a preliminary version of the new ILIAS SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) editor to an international audience. The editor is being developed in close cooperation with the ADL WG (Advanced Distance Learning Working Group) and contractors from the ILIAS open source development community. The editor enables the creation of appealing learning content. It will be officially released in autumn 2009 (as part of ILIAS 4.0).
Workshops Rapid e-Learning
We have played an important role in establishing and coaching workshops for the Swiss armed forces to train military instructors in the production of e-Learning content. Currently, we are developing a handbook for the participants containing all critical information for developing projects quickly and efficiently.
Consulting for the Swiss Armed Forces
We provide consulting work for the Swiss armed forces in e-Learning. Projects include design optimization of the learning management system in use as well as support of e-Learning marketing efforts.
ADL Content Production Kit
In the framework of the ADL WG (Advanced Distributed Learning Working Group) we have produced a comprehensive process manual for the production of interoperable content in international projects of defense institutions. The manual also includes concrete worksheets and templates and has already been used widely. Currently, we are preparing a new release of the document based on lessons learned in international collaboration.
Recently Developed e-Learning Courses
The 'Building Defence Institutions' course addresses those responsible for establishing democratically controlled armed forces. The course – produced in-house for and in close cooperation with Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) – has been well received. A certificate based on an online test was developed in June 2009.
The course 'Combating Trafficking in Human Beings' introduces NATO's policy on forced prostitution – with a focus on how to recognize and combat it in cooperation with local governments. We produced the course, initiated by NATO, in close cooperation with NATO's subject matter specialists.
Two further courses, 'Harvard Negotiation Principles' and 'Interpersonal and Organizational Mediation', designed for foreign policy professionals supporting peacebuilding processes, have been produced in close cooperation with our parent institute, the Center for Security Studies (CSS).
OSINT Training
We are an experienced provider of open source intelligence training in Europe. Our staff has trained security and defense professionals throughout Europe with a particular focus on the collection and analysis of open source intelligence. We have also been involved in developing and delivering subject and region-specific OSINT courses on behalf of the European Defense Agency (EDA). In addition, the ISN is a member of the European Open Source Intelligence (EUROSINT) Forum. The Forum is a non-profit entity dedicated to fostering European cooperation on the use of OSINT in order to minimize risks to peace and security. We chair the Forum's working group on best practices in OSINT.
ISN KMS
The Knowledge Management System (KMS), which is one of the main technologies behind our integrated Information Services, has been adopted by several partner institutes including:
Center for Security Studies (CSS)
Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP)
Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF)
The KMS is also a fundamental feature of our own expert communities' websites:
Crisis and Risk Network (CRN)
Russian and Eurasian Security Network (RES)
Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security (PHP)
Swiss Foreign and Security Policy Network (SSN)
Search Engine
Our search engine, which runs on the Lucene framework, has been integrated into a number of partner websites including NATO's ePRIME and the following NATO sub-websites:
Kosovo Force (KFOR)
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)
Website Development
Being part of ETH Zurich allows us to leverage our IT know-how for the IR community. This has established the ISN as a professional technology provider and consultant. Of late, we have developed the following high-profile websites:
Strategic Trends Analysis (STA)
SiPol for VBS
International Security Forum (ISF)
EINIRAS