Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen

• Presentation
• CV
• Research outputs
• Press/Media
• Activities

Knowledge of languages

English
German
Scandinavian Languages 

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Twitter: @mikkelvedby

He was born in 1973 in Gentofte, Denmark, and he lives in Copenhagen with his wife and their three children.

From 2014-15 Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen was the head of the Strategy and Policy Office in the Danish Ministry of Defence. As such, Professor Rasmussen’s task was to advice the Ministry’s leadership on strategic issues and he is responsible for developing policy initiatives. He is also responsible for a number of network and out-reach activities. From 2009 to 2014 Professor Rasmussen was the director of the Centre for Military Studies. During this time the Centre became the number 20 Global Go-To Think Tank on National Security and Defence according to the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2015, Professor Rasmussen published The Military's Business with Cambridge University Press. In 2011 he published a book on Denmark’s engagement in the ISAF-operation in Afghanistan. He has published on security and strategy, for example The Risk Society at War (Cambridge University Press, 2006)  as well on patterns of peace-making, for example The West, Civil Society and the Construction of Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

In 2012, Professor Rasmussen was lead-author on an analysis of strategic choices for Danish defence policy written at the request of the political parties behind the Defence Bill 2010-15. In 2011-12 Professor Rasmussen was a member of a government committee that produced a white book on the future of conscription in Denmark. He was a member the Danish Defence Commission of 2008 and he was a co-writer of the Danish white paper on defence in 2004. In 2007-8 he was part of a Ministry of Defence commission on emergency services. He has given testimony to the foreign affairs and defence committees at the Danish Parliament. Furthermore, in 2007 the Norwegian Foreign Ministry asked him to write a position paper on the future of foreign policy. In 2009, Professor Rasmussen gave a presentation to the NATO military committee and briefed the NATO Secretary General.

Professor Rasmussen has published extensively in peer reviewed journals as well as published policy papers and given advise to the Danish Ministry of Defence as well as other foreign policy and military institutions. He has published on Denmark’s procurement of fighter aircraft, on the Danish defence posture in the Arctic, strategic adaptation in Afghanistan, NATO issues as well as risk management and strategy.

Professor Rasmussen has taught classes at the University of Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Defence College. Since 2009 he has, together with his colleague Henrik Breitenbauch, taught a summer school on Danish Defence Policy and Strategic Studies. He has recently lectured at, for example, Chatham House, the Baltic Defence College, the Norwegian Air War College, Norwegian Institute for International Affairs, St. Andrews University, the Finish National Defence University, London School of Economics and the NATO Defence College.

Professor Rasmussen writes a column in the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende and is often used as a commentator in the Danish media.

From 2006 to 2009 Professor Rasmussen was the Head of the Danish Institute for Military Studies, while on leave from his position at the University of Copenhagen. Previously, he worked at the Danish Institute for International Affairs as a Project Director for a large MoD funded project on defence and security issues. He is an Adjunct Professor of the Baltic Defence College and member of the board of the Danish Foreign Policy Society. He is listed in the Danish Who is Who (Karks Blå Bog).

Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen got his Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen and holds an MSc in Political Science from that university as well as an MSc in Dr. Rasmussen has published widely on strategic issues of international relations.