Magnus Ekengren

Presentation

Dr Magnus Ekengren is Associate Professor at the Swedish National Defence College. He is the Director of the College's Programme for European Security Research (EUROSEC) and co-director of the international research programme Building Societal Security in Europe. During the academic year of 2011-2012 he is Visiting Professor with the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Canada.

Dr Ekengren publishes in the areas of European foreign and security policy, crisis management, security sector reform, and the Europeanisation of the nation-state. In recent years he has specialized in EU security policy and its effect on the structures and policies of EU member states. His current research examines the security dynamics of multi-level governance systems in comparative perspective, including the US and EU. Projects include a study of the Union as a new type of "secure community" rather than "security community", an examination of the transboundary effects of EU internal and external security policies and an elaboration of a theory on EU intervention in international crisis. Dr Ekengren is currently involved in several international projects, such as the ones on "experimentalist governance and the EU's global role" and "the practice turn" in IR-theory.

Dr Magnus Ekengren's recent publications include articles on transboundary threats and new forms of EU co-operation (European Security) and the EU's new security paradigm (Studia Diplomatica, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management) and the book "The Time of European Governance" (Manchester University Press). His latest books are called "The Politics of Security Sector Reform – Challenges and Opportunities for the EU's Global Role" (Ashgate 2011) and "The EU as Crisis Manager – Problems and Prospects" (2011). Dr Ekengren is regularly called upon to referee academic articles for journals such as Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy and European Journal of International Relations. He also publishes in practitioner journals and newspapers, including European Voice (BE).

Dr Ekengren is a former Swedish diplomat and was previously Deputy Director at the Policy Planning Unit of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (where he dealt with EU enlargement, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU institutional reform). He was for many years the secretary to the Ministry's Expert Group on European Affairs, that brought together leading academic researchers and policymakers. He has briefed senior government officials in Sweden and abroad, and lectures regularly at European universities and think tanks. In 2011 he was invited to the European Parliament to speak as an expert on European disaster response. Dr Ekengren also served in the Swedish Representation to the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, and worked in the European Commission in Brussels.

Dr Ekengren studied at Uppsala University, the College of Europe in Bruges, and Johns Hopkins University (Bologna) before earning his PhD from Stockholm University. He also serves on the Foundation Board of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.