The International Studies Association approved the undertaking of a major Compendium Project at our 2006 meeting in San Diego . The work is to be published by Basil Blackwell. We designed the project to serve as the fundamental resource for information on international studies. Instead of short descriptive notes, we are soliciting review essays of approximately ten thousand words that will trace the development, current status and future prospects of the literature in a particular issue area. Entries are to be peer reviewed. Bob Denemark will serve as general editor.

ISA sections will be asked to provide the lists of topics to be covered. Sections are putting together committees to help coordinate this task. Most of the committees are composed of five or six members. Diverse committees are best. We are especially interested in including representatives from different facets of the discipline, as well as those of different ranks. The task of coming up with topics is closely associated with identification of possible authors and reviewers. We hope the committees will play a central role in this process as well.

Many section representatives have asked ‘how much space' they have been allotted. We have upwards of seven thousand pages we can fill, and so the question should really be turned around. How much space do you need? How many review essays (of about 10k words each) will it take to represent the important strands of the relevant literature? Can we find qualified authors to write on these topics? This seems a more coherent way to build a comprehensive project of this magnitude. Should entries far outpace our available space, we will talk about cutting back. But the initial question should be ‘what do you need' and not what might (arbitrarily) be assigned at this early date.

Blackwell will market the project to libraries and other institutions. In the electronic version, titled International Studies On-Line , the essays will be enhanced with live links to archives, datasets, cases, pedagogical aids and other relevant materials. Blackwell will also publish a hardback version of the materials in A-to-Z format to be titled ISE The International Studies Encyclopedia ). ISA sections will have the option of adding content to the essays they generate and publishing a separate volume suitable for students or personal libraries. These would be marketed well after the overall project becomes available, and section co-editors (or the sections themselves) might share the revenues from such volumes. Contact Bob Denemark for more information about this series.

The Compendium Project is a major undertaking, on par with the publication of our journals and the organization of our annual meeting. We are in the process of creating a Board of Advisory Editors. All former ISA presidents have been asked to serve, and the completed list will be made available once everyone has had the chance to respond. We look forward to the creation of a high quality reference for international studies that will be of enduring value to the entire profession.