The 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 twelve 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 organisational structure with executive committee, chairperson and annual general meeting of members. The SWP is named as coordinating Institute. The FIV remains an unincorporated organisation.

SWP moves from 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 (today's Institute for East and South East European Studies, Regensburg).

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 eight European databases (WAO, COE, SIPRI, RIIA, FIIA, CIDOP, UMV, FNSP) 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 starts providing direct public access URL links to subject relevant publications.

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.

The German Overseas Institute (DÜI) is renamed to GIGA - German Institute of Global and Area Studies. Leibniz Institute for Global and Regional Studies.

After a long period of cooperation, the Danish Nordic Institute of Asian Studies with headquarters in Copenhagen becomes associate member of FIV. This cooperation ends in 2008 as a result of changed priorities in NIAS.

The European Thesaurus on International relations and Area Studies, a co-production resulting from the cooperation of European partner institutes in the framework of EINIRAS, is now available in a multilingual printed version.

Current bibliographic references from subject relevant journals can now be researched in the recently presented Current Contents Service for International Relations and Area Studies. This service is part of the GBV product Online Contents Special Subject Collections (OLC-SSG).

IREON - The subject gateway for International Relations and Area Studies Online starts as a new, freely accessible gateway of FIV. IREON makes possible a simultaneous, parallel search of bibliographic references in WAO - World Affairs Online as well as in further subject databases.

The European Thesaurus on International Relations and Area Studies, now in nine languages, is integrated in IREON and can be used online for literature research.

In addition, IREON is accessible through the German science gateway vascoda.

FIV member institutes contribute with selected parts of the database WAO - World Affairs Online to a number of virtual subject gateways, such as Cibera, CrossAsia, ilissAfrica, MENALIB, vifanord, VifaPol, and Vifarom.