Siegfried Beer

Siegfried Beer (*1948), Mag. et Dr. phil., was born in Scheibbs, Lower Austria and graduated from the Akademisches Gymnasium Graz in 1966 with summa cum laude. He studied history and English literature/language at the University of Vienna and in 1968/69 as a Fulbright scholar at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. From 1974 to 1976 he was part-time assistant at the Institute of History (Lehrkanzel Gerald Stourzh), University of Vienna. After a short stint as secondary school teacher he joined the Institute of History at the University of Graz in 1978 (Lehrkanzel Grete Walter-Klingenstein). In 1999 he qualified for a venia legendi in Late Modern and Contemporary History. (associate professorship) He held guest-professorships at the University of Minnesota/Minneapolis (1992), at Harvard University (1996/7 as Joseph A. Schumpeter Fellow) and at Columbia University in the City of New York (2007 as Botstiber Foundation guest-professor). In 2004 he founded the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (ACIPSS) which he still directs; in 2007 he initiated and still edits the Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPSS). Also in 2007 he was appointed Director of the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies (BIAAS) in Media, PA. Upon retirement in October 2013 he was honored with a Festschrift: “License to Detect” (Graz 2013).

Further Information:
Main areas of research and teaching: international politics since 1776; history of British and American politics and cultures since 1783; Austria in international relations since 1918; history of espionage and intelligence since 1870.
Has directed or participated in nine publicly funded scientific projects since 1993, a tenth having just been submitted to the Zukunftsfonds Österreich. Has served in several scientific commissions and on a handful of editorial boards of national and international journals. A list of publications is available on the webpage of the Historische Landeskommission für Steiermark.

Siegfried Beer is father of four adult children and since 2012 grandfather of five grandchildren.