WELCOME TO THE WIIS DATABASE!

There is an annual subscriber fee of $55 to access this database and to receive associated benefits described below. As you are aware, WIIS is responsible for paying for its own operational costs and the subscriber fee will offset the costs of providing these services. The fee and any additional donations you make to WIIS are tax-deductible.

The $55 annual fee allows you to:

• Be part of a community of peers who value and support women contributions, participation, and gender awareness in the peace and security field.
• Create a personalized profile and access a new, customized database of WIIS members to support your virtual networking.
• Build mentoring relationships with WIIS experts and peers in our network, conveniently and quickly accessible via the database.
• Have the opportunity to be recommended by WIIS as experts for professional opportunities such as public speaking, media appearances, and consultancies by creating a profile with your expertise in the database.
• Be invited to pre-register for select WIIS events and leadership development programs where space is limited.
• Receive the WIIS JobsHotline, which includes jobs, internships, fellowships, conferences, and courses.
• Receive the WIIS This Week e-newsletter that includes information on WIIS activities, public events, and opportunities of interest to the WIIS community worldwide.
• Receive the WIIS Quarterly e-newsletter that highlights WIIS programs, profiles the activities of WIIS groups around the world, and shares news about member accomplishments

Dear WIIS Honor Roll and WIIS supporters,

We would like to thank you for your membership and continuing support of WIIS. Since its establishment in 1987 WIIS has played an important role in peace and security debates in the United States and abroad and has advanced women's leadership at all levels. WIIS members have held very senior positions from the State, Homeland Security and Defense Departments to the U.S. Congress and in the academic institutions that recruit and train future leaders. The impact of WIIS in other countries is more recent, but also profound. Currently, WIIS has six chapters in the U.S. and sixteen international affiliates, including 11 in Europe, 3 in the Americas, and 1 each in Asia and the Middle East.

WIIS’ work is only just beginning. Women are still too often excluded from decision-making circles or not sufficiently represented in the leadership of crucial international activities from peacemaking to military reform. As participation of women in peace and security becomes increasingly important, WIIS is needed more than ever. 

In recent years WIIS has had a relationship with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that has now come to an end. Members of the WIIS Leadership have come together to explore how best to position WIIS for 21st century international peace and security challenges. We will continue discussions throughout the Spring of 2013, but the foundation of our efforts is already clear. We believe that for WIIS to reach its full potential, it needs to expand its activities and substantive focus and establish a broad web of partnerships with existing institutions and groups in both the United States and abroad. We also believe that the time has come to seek an independent and autonomous legal status for WIIS as an organization. .

We look forward to calling on you for ideas and membership support as we move forward. We have moved to a new interim home while we reorganize. SIPRI North America, under the leadership of Chantal de Jonge Oudraat and WIIS founder Catherine Kelleher, has offered to provide WIIS with a temporary home for 2013. From there we will begin to face the fundraising challenges involved in putting WIIS on a stable financial and organizational footing for the future.

During this period, WIIS will continue providing services such as the jobs hotline and will work closely with Dorian Ramos and other members of the leadership team of the WIIS-DC chapter for an expansion of networking opportunities. As WIIS continues these activities, we will also develop new ones. We are presently considering a reinstatement of the Women in International Security Summer Symposium, high level trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific meetings, and a research agenda focused on the opportunities and challenges provided by the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 to promote the participation of women in peace processes.  

WIIS, during this period of transition, will also actively seek to involve its different stakeholders—including the WIIS chapters and international affiliates—and expand its member-base and its network of partner associations. More generally, WIIS will continue to be a catalyst for joint programming and projects with many organizations and groups both in the US and abroad. For updates please visit the website at wiisglobal.org,  email WIIS at info@wiisglobal.org or contact Chantal de Jonge Oudraat at coudraat@wiisglobal.org

Last but definitely not least, at this critical time, we would like to express our deep gratitude to Executive Director Jolynn Shoemaker and Assistant Director Marie Laure Poire, and wish them well in their future career moves. We recognize their enormous commitment to WIIS and their efforts over the past ten years to expand the WIIS network and programming. 

We will keep you informed as we move forward and will soon call on you for ideas and membership support.

The WIIS 2.0 Leadership Committee

Pamela Aall  

Fran Burwell

Chantal de Jonge Oudraat

Melanie Greenberg

Virginia Haufler

Laurie Hoes

Catherine Kelleher

Gale Mattox

Dorian Ramos

Linda Staheli

Carola Weil

Dear Members of the WIIS Community,

The first months of this year have been ones of transition for WIIS, as we prepare for some major institutional changes. First, we are pleased to announce that, as of January 18, 2013, WIIS has moved to the Washington DC office of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), North America. SIPRI North America is headed by Dr. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, who has been a dedicated leader and advisor of WIIS for many years. In the coming weeks you will receive further information on this new and exciting partnership.

We would like to take this moment to thank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) for all it has done for WIIS over the past year and a half, during our time of joint affiliation. We have enjoyed working closely with a number of programs at CSIS and outside partners on highly-successful events focusing on such issues as women’s leadership in Congress, women’s roles in counter-terrorism, women’s participation in cyber-security, and under-examined gender dimensions of many international security issues. We are deeply grateful to CSIS leadership and staff for their support for WIIS over these past months, and we look forward to continued collaboration in the future.

With the move to SIPRI North America, it is also the right moment for us to pass the WIIS torch to new leadership. Marie-Laure and I will be stepping out of our formal roles at WIIS at this time. It is a bittersweet moment for us. Marie-Laure has been with WIIS for 6 years and I have been in my role for 7 years. We will continue to assist WIIS in any ways possible, and we continue to serve in volunteer, formally-affiliated roles with SIPRI North America/WIIS. We are proud to have been a part of the WIIS accomplishments over these past years, and we both feel strongly about the critical need for WIIS and potential for WIIS to make an even greater impact globally in the next decade.

WIIS has benefited enormously from our strong cadre of dedicated volunteer leaders – on our boards and advisory bodies and as leaders of our WIIS chapters, international affiliates, and groups around the world. Marie-Laure and I are proud that the WIIS network has grown so much in recent years and that there is so much momentum and success in establishing WIIS communities in various countries, regions, and institutions.You will be hearing more about the upcoming changes at WIIS in the coming weeks from Chantal and other long-time leaders of WIIS. Rest assured that the WIIS network will continue to function and thrive, and we are continuing to discuss and develop future projects and programs. While the WIIS' database of experts remains unchanged, WIIS’ website is now available here.

Marie-Laure and I would like to thank all of you for being so supportive and enthusiastic about WIIS. The heart of WIIS is truly the community of individuals who actively promote and support women’s opportunities in this field. The success of WIIS is due in large part to your ongoing commitment to our mission. Personally, our professional lives have been so enriched from working with so many inspiring experts and leaders who believe that a more peaceful and secure world is possible and who work every day to make that happen.

If you have questions about the future of WIIS, please feel free to contact Chantal at info@wiisglobal.org.

We look forward to staying in touch with you.

Warmly,

           Jolynn Shoemaker                             Marie-Laure Poiré