Prof. Adam D.M. Svendsen, PhD
Warwick, UK; Examined: War Studies, KCL
Adam D.M. Svendsen, PhD (Warwick, UK; Examined: War Studies, KCL) is an Associate Professor at the Norwegian Defence University College (NDUC/FHS). He is an established international intelligence and defence strategist, educator, researcher, analyst, adviser, and consultant. You can find him on social media as @intstrategist, and explore his work at orcid.org/0000-0002-0684-9967 and www.intstrategist.com.
With extensive senior-level experience across multiple sectors, Dr. Svendsen divides his time between the UK and Scandinavia. He advises on national and regional (European/EU) projects, contributes to the research of various countries' defence research agencies and intelligence academies, and supports international organizations like the UN. He also spearheads the Bridgehead Institute (Research & Consulting - Insight, Training & Education) and is an Affiliated Scholar at the Collective Intelligence Group, IT University Copenhagen (https://ci.itu.dk/).
Academic and Professional Engagements
Dr. Svendsen trained at European defence and emergency planning colleges and has lectured at a senior/advanced level at the Royal Danish Defence College (FAK). He has also given guest lectures and research seminars at the Royal Netherlands Defence Academy, Copenhagen Business School, Aarhus University, and taught at the University of Nottingham.
As an Adjunct Professor with the Walsh School of Foreign Service, he has served as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Peace & Security Studies, Georgetown University. His past roles include a research fellowship at the Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen, Associate Consultant at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS/IFF) in Denmark, and work at Chatham House on the International Security Programme and at the IISS, London.
Publications and Contributions
His work has been cited in testimony to the UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee and he has contributed to the UK Parliament Office of Science and Technology (POST) and participated in the UK RUSI Strategic Hub on Organised Crime Research. Dr. Svendsen has received multi-sector awards for his international media and communication experience, including numerous peer-reviewed publications. His five books include:
- (1) Intelligence Cooperation and the War on Terror: Anglo-American Security Relations after 9/11 (London: Routledge/Studies in Intelligence Series, 2010 [Pbk 2012])
- (2) Understanding the Globalization of Intelligence, and (3) The Professionalization of Intelligence Cooperation: Fashioning Method out of Mayhem (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, 2012)
- (4) Intelligence Engineering: Operating Beyond the Conventional (New York: Bloomsbury/Rowman & Littlefield/Security and Professional Intelligence Education Series - SPIES, 2017)
- (5) Navigating Uncertainty using Foresight Intelligence: A Guidebook for Scoping Scenario Options in Cyber and Beyond (co-authored with Dr. Bruce Garvey, MBA) (Springer, 2024)
Areas of Expertise
Dr. Svendsen is a Generalist-to-Specialist in M4IS2: Multi-agency, Multi-national, Multi-disciplinary, Multi-domain Information Sharing & Sense-making. His expertise spans across:
- Commerce
- Academic
- Government
- Civil Society
- Media
- Law Enforcement (Policing)
- Military
- Non-government/Non-profit entities & sectors
His main areas of work connect:
- Multi-domain Strategy, Risk & Resilience
- 'Good' (lawful) Governance & Security Sector Reform (SSR)
- Defence, Security & Law Enforcement
- Civil Protection & Emergency Preparedness
- Civil Contingencies & Emergency/Crisis Management
- Intelligence & Information/Knowledge-management
- Leadership/command-and-control (C2)
📌 Connect:
