Robert Egnell

Robert Egnell (PhD London) is a senior fellow with the Security Studies Program and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. He is currently a professor of military sociology and leadership, as well as head of the Department of Security, Strategy and Leadership at the Swedish Defence University. He is the author of Women and Gender Perspectives in the Military: An International Comparison (Georgetown UP, 2019). Professor Egnell's research and expertise is best summarized as “the conduct and effectiveness of peace and stability operations”. This means that he over the years has studied state-building and security sector reform, counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, gender in military operations, civil-military coordination for effectiveness in peace operations, as well as the connection between security and development. His current research project is nevertheless a book on “Human Security and the State” – an attempt to rethink the way we understand security, who the threatened are, who threatens, and who the providers of security should be. Dr Egnell is also a captain in the Swedish Army reserves with operational experience from the first Swedish battalion in Kosovo in 1999-2000. Previous appointments include working as a senior researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Institute (FOI) where he focused his research on African Security, peace support operations and civil-military relations. Until June 2007 he was an assistant lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he taught International Relations, conflict management and political science.