The International Commission of History of International Relations is an affiliate commission of the International Committee of Historical Sciences. Its purpose is to develop the studies on the history of international relations, by several means, such as organising periodical meetings among its members, aiding the spread of scientific information concerning this domain of history. publishing scientific documents useful for historical research in this field and any other activity which may appear to be useful to widen the works of the Commission. The Commission was founded in 1980 and its members are scholars from all over the world. You can find more information and adhesion form in the website www.comintrel.com.

The idea of publishing a magazine of the Commission of the History of International Relations (CHIR) was born several years ago, but only now, with the avail of electronic publishing, it can become a reality. The ambition of the Scientific Committee, which is the same as the Bureau of the Commission, is to make the magazine a point of reference for all the scholars interested in the history of international relations, of course in the broad sense that the Commission has always advocated. This first issue contains the Proceedings of the CHIR Scientific Session held in Sydney in July 2005 during the XXth World Congress of Historical Sciences, which was devoted to “What’s New in the History (and Theory) of International Relations after 1989?” From different standpoints, 31 authors from 11 different countries deal with the issue of change in the studies of history and theory of international relations after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union. They were asked to consider three aspects in particular: the significance of 1989 as a watershed for international historians, new directions in the history of international relations after 1989, and the relationships between history and theories of international relations since 1989.