Today, SIPRI celebrates the launch of SIPRI Yearbook 2019 by making all editions from 1969 to 2016 available for free download. Originally published with the aim to ‘produce a factual and balanced account of a controversial subject—the arms race and attempts to stop it’, the Yearbook has evolved to cover a variety of topics in armaments, disarmament and international security and transformed into an indispensable reference work.
Explore the SIPRI Yearbook archive.
50-day social media campaign
Last month, SIPRI embarked on a 50-day social media campaign leading up to today’s launch of the complete back catalogue of the Yearbook. The campaign highlights moments in the Yearbook’s history including cover redesigns, publisher changes, new databases, technological advances, defining world events and the book’s significance to those who worked with it. In doing so, it utilizes film, GIFs, photographs, quotes and information from various editions to reach SIPRI’s global audiences across its social media platforms.
An introductory film featuring SIPRI Director Dan Smith sets the tone for the campaign, reiterating the importance of the data and analysis found in the Yearbook and the authority of the publication on the world stage. Graphics, such as the intricate cross-section of a US air-launched cruise missile (1978) or the map of proposed changes for the CFE Treaty flank zone realignment (1996), illustrate technological advancement and the core relationship between data analysis and data visualization found in the publication.