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Military Policy Research Ltd was founded in 1998 by its research director, S.E. King, who designed, compiles and publishes its principal product, the Lancaster Index to Defence & International Security Literature. This database comprises indexed citations and abstracts from over 400 periodicals and monographs published since the early 1980s, dealing with military and political issues.

The Lancaster Index is so named in honour of the late Martin Edmonds, professor of defence and security studies at Lancaster University, UK, and a leading scholar of civil-military relations. It is a pleasure to acknowledge here his warm encouragement and support for an information service designed to bring the contents of professional military education to a wider civilian audience.

As the Lancaster Index approaches the milestone of 200,000 citations and abstracts, it is sobering to reflect that, if the critical apparatus attached to most of the articles covered is anything to go by, this seemingly large figure may represent rather less than half of one percent of the material out there, both in print and online. Furthermore, the ratio of 'hard' (i.e. printed) sources to 'soft' sources is diminishing steadily. We are drowning in a flood of alterable ephemera.

Nevertheless, it is hoped that such coverage as this database provides will assist military and academic researchers, as well as interested members of the general public, to follow the main currents of contemporary writing in the fields of military policy and international relations.

MPR is always interested in hearing from publishers of journals and monographs who would like their publications to be covered by the Lancaster Index.

S.E.King, Research Director
Military Policy Research Ltd.
92a Church Way, Iffley
Oxford OX4 4EF, England

 
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