[30 October 2022] Future historians are likely to assess the impact of COVID-19 on scholarly inquiry as mixed. The pandemic compelled an unparalleled growth in mRNA medicines and pharmaceutical science more broadly. It also forced a re-evaluation of the use of emergency medicine practices in public health. At the same time, however, COVID-19 hampered scholarly cooperation by preventing experts from gathering and sharing ideas through discussion. Yes, a host of emerging teleconferencing technologies helped us to partly address the need to confer. On balance, however, we were left to our own devices, and had to do our work as best we could during those unpleasant and stagnant years.
That is why the recent conference of the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE), which took place from October 20 to 22 in South Carolina, was such a significant event. It was the first face-to-face gathering of the IAFIE scholarly community in the United States since 2019. In a sense, it bridged the gap caused by the pandemic and, in doing so, brought back the sense of optimism that is inherent in scholarly inquiry. Dozens of intelligence studies scholars, current and former practitioners, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, came together at the Citadel in South Carolina, to break bread and re-connect.
Much of the success of the conference is owed to the dedicated work of its organizers, among them Dr. Larry Valero (IAFIE Events Chair), Dr. Melissa Graves and Dr. Jan Goldman, as well the administration of the Citadel, whose leaders actively backed this important gathering. We were especially pleased to hear from a diverse and knowledgeable team of keynote speakers from both the military and civilian intelligence domains. Equally importantly, the scholarly standard of the panel presentations was high, as were the exchanges among the participating experts. The IAFIE leadership, led by IAFIE President Dr. Barry Zulauf, is to be congratulated for its work for this conference.
The European Intelligence Academy is grateful to all those who organized this event. We thank them for facilitating the free exchange of ideas in the field of intelligence studies, which, like so many other fields of scholarly inquiry, suffered under COVID-19. We missed these gatherings during the pandemic, and we are so glad to have them back. We look forward to seeing everyone at the next IAFIE conference, which will take place at Mercyhurst University in June of 2023. [EIA]