The Times They Are a-Changin’ (Bob Dylan). And So Is the Journal (Florian Kühn).

Recent years have amply proven the importance, indeed the necessity for expert knowledge, thorough analysis, and critical thinking as it is published in our journal. With foreign policy amateurs in the highest positions of powerful countries, in fact, with leaders who denounce expertise and celebrate their ‘non-conventional’ (read: erratic and folly) policies, sober analysis and conceptually sound arguments are just the more required to enable solid strategic decision making. This knowledge is instrumental in holding the powerful accountable for their asininity, ill-will and self-incurred immaturity. In the face of increasing numbers of scholars being put at risk by their own governments aiming to silence and prosecute independent research, it becomes even more obvious how political and politically important publishing these scholars’ work, and critical research more generally, has become.

The Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding continues to be devoted to publishing empirically grounded and conceptually challenging work by established and emerging scholars, while keeping an eye on practitioner debate and policy needs. Since the journal’s inception in 2007, we have observed the currents move from outright statebuilding and ideas of comprehensive (re-)structuring of state institutions to international interventions taking account in multiple ways of complex situations and aiming at the small-scale transformation of governance modes. This is not to say that interventions have become less socially disruptive, or more ‘efficient’ – whatever efficiency would be understood to mean. The imbroglio of zealous interventionism needs to be observed just more closely.

Our 14th volume features Special Issues advancing formerly overlooked topics such as, in this issue, the role of International Organisations (IOs) in peacebuilding and stabilization missions in Africa (Moe and Geis 2020). Issue #1 looked at the forging of social contracts in and after peace has been established and pointed out the challenges of getting a social contract functional (McCandless 2020). Future issues in 2020 will also of course feature single articles. As is our publishing practice, the journal aims to combine different articles to present an attractive selection of knowledge in the discipline of peace and conflict studies. We would like to extend thanks to our readers, and we are equally heartfelt to our authors and reviewers for their relentless efforts to help us publish the highest quality of research. It gives us great pleasure to see the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding now included in the Social Science Citation Index and to be ranked in this upcoming summer’s citation report, and we hope to be able to continuously improve our ranking over the next years. We are of course already listed and range #59 out of 487 in the Political Science and International Relations category of Scopus, and #44 in the SJR ranking.

2020 not only ushered in a new decade during which intervention and statebuilding will most likely continue unabashed to make headlines and to structure international cooperation and conflict. The new year also saw major changes in the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding’s team. After six years of tireless work as co-editor of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Nicholas Lemay-Hébert left the journal at the end of 2019. Without his leadership in getting the journal positioned in Scopus and Emerging Scholars Citation Indices, without his strategic contributions and networking to advance the journal in the circle of scholars we admire, and without his personal friendship, the journal would not be where it is today. We are very grateful for this and that Nick is going to continue to follow the journal’s course and support us as a member of our international advisory board.

Isaline Bergamaschi and Jeff Bridoux also both left the journal’s editorial team to move on to other exciting publishing activities. Both have been part of the team for many years, and have relentlessly found and chased reviewers while making sure that articles we published fulfilled the highest standards. Isaline, Jeff, and Nick thank you so much for your dedication, energy and friendship. It was a pleasure working with you all and I wish you all the best with your future tasks.

As the journal went up to five issues per year in 2019 (Kühn and Lemay-Hébert 2019), the team grew. Incoming editorial assistants are Patricia Rinck at University of Duisburg-Essen and Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research Duisburg GCR21, María Martín de Almagro at Université de Québec à Montréal and Adam Moore at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). With their diverse research backgrounds, they will make sure to guarantee the best-fitted service during reviews and editing. Welcome on board of the JISB vessel. Raquel da Silva, Katrin Travouillon as assistant editors and Isabel Rochas de Siquiera as book reviews editor continue their fantastic work and ensure continuity on the highest level of quality. It is inconceivable to be running a journal without having this immense team effort, which I can only commend and express my utmost gratitude for. I feel highly privileged to have the pleasure of working with such gifted individuals.

Last but not anywhere near least, Pol Bargués has joined the journal as co-editor. Together we will continue to shape the debate and be hunting for new trends in research and conceptual thinking. We will continue to publish cutting-edge Special Issues and Special Sections but also innovative formats such as Fora and Practitioner Reports, as well as the occasional interview continuing the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding’s cherished tradition of hearing practitioners speak (see, for example, Karzai 2018; Concannon 2018; Donovan 2015). We will conceptually and empirically further advance the study of peace and conflict, peacebuilding and consolidation, security policy and practices of stabilization, resilience and conflict settlement, actors, practices, mandates and politics of interventionist endeavours. We look forward to hearing your ideas, comments and feedback, and will continue to work hard to get your cutting-edge ideas published.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).