On April 30, 2014 we turned 20. For all this years PIR Center has been an independent nongovernmental organization, which carried out research, as well as educational, public awareness and publishing activities, and provided consulting services. From the time of its founding in April 1994 to this day, the priority areas of the Center’s research studies remain international security, control and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. PIR Center is in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The first project and the trademark publication of the PIR Center was the Yaderny Kontrol journal, the pilot issue of which came out in November 1994. The Russian and international establishments and expert communities have recognized Yaderny Kontrol as the source of objective analytical information on the subject of nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and arms control. The understanding of the complex character of current security problems brought the existing group of authors and the editorial board to the decision to expand the scope of the journal and to release the new edition under the title Security Index.Beginning in 2007, the journal is published four times a year in both Russian and English. The English edition of Security Index is published by Routledge publishing house and distributed from London worldwide. In 2012 a landmark 100th issue of the Journal came out in print.
Since 1997, the PIR Center has been developing educational programs in the area of nonproliferation and international security. Under its educational projects, the Center closely interacts with the leading Russian higher education institutions: MGIMO, MEPhI, St. Petersburg, Tomsk and Novosibirsk State Universities and others. With the appointment of PIR Center president Vladimir Orlov in 2001 as a UN consultant on disarmament and nonproliferation education, the Center won international recognition in the sphere of education.
PIR Center makes intensive efforts to involve young specialists in its work. The Center staff in different times included recent graduates of the top Russian higher education institutions, such as MGIMO, Moscow State University and MEPhI.
