Sten Rynning
| Sten Rynning | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1967 (age 58–59) |
| 🏳️ Citizenship | Denmark |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 👔 Employer | University of Southern Denmark |
| Known for | Research on NATO, war and transatlantic security |
| Notable work | NATO in Afghanistan (2012) NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine (2024) |
| 🏅 Awards | Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog |
Sten Rynning (born 1967) is a Danish political scientist and professor of war studies at the University of Southern Denmark. He has served as director of the Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS) since August 2023.[1][2]
Rynning's research focuses on NATO, the changing character of war, geopolitics, military alliances, deterrence and transatlantic security.[3] He founded the university's Center for War Studies in 2011 and directed it until 2019.[4]
Academic career
Rynning has held research and teaching positions in international relations and war studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Before becoming director of DIAS, he served as vice dean for research in the university's Faculty of Business and Social Sciences from June 2019 until August 2022. He was also interim dean of the faculty from November 2021 to May 2022.[4]
In 2011, Rynning founded the Center for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. The centre was established to bring together researchers working on war, peace, military power and international security. He served as its head until 2019.[4]
Rynning was president of the Nordic International Studies Association from 2011 to 2015. He was a visiting fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome in 2012 and a scholar in residence at the American University School of International Service in Washington, D.C., in 2017. Between 2019 and 2022, he was a non-resident associate fellow at the NATO Defense College.[2]
On 1 August 2023, Rynning assumed the directorship of the Danish Institute for Advanced Study. During his first semester, he served alongside the institute's outgoing director, Marianne Holmer, to facilitate the transition in leadership.[2]
Government advisory work
Rynning served as a member of the Norwegian government's Afghanistan Commission from 2015 to 2016. The commission examined Norway's military and civilian involvement in Afghanistan.[4]
He also contributed to ambassador Peter Taksøe-Jensen's official review of Danish foreign and security policy in 2015 and 2016. From 2017 to 2019, he advised the commission established to examine Denmark's decisions to participate in military operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and the Iraq War.[2]
Research
Rynning's scholarship examines alliances, military transformation, European security and the relationship between political ideas and international power. Much of his published work has focused on NATO's institutional development, military operations and role in the European security order.[3]
International relations theory
In a 2008 article co-written with Jens Ringsmose, Rynning argued for reviving classical realism as an approach to explaining why states attempt to revise the international order. They argued that theories of structural realism did not adequately explain the domestic and historical sources of revisionist state behaviour.[5]
Rynning has also applied realist approaches to the study of the European Union, European defence cooperation and the balance of power between Russia and Western states.[6]
NATO research
Rynning's 2005 book NATO Renewed examined the alliance's adaptation after the Cold War and the development of its crisis-management and counterterrorism roles. In NATO in Afghanistan: The Liberal Disconnect, published in 2012, he analysed the alliance's military campaign in Afghanistan and the tension between its political ambitions and the military resources committed to achieving them.[7]
NATO in Afghanistan received the 2013 Outstanding Academic Title award from Choice.[7] Rynning later co-authored Transforming Military Power since the Cold War with Theo Farrell and Terry Terriff. The book compared changes in the armies of France, the United Kingdom and the United States between 1991 and 2012.[8]
In 2024, Yale University Press published Rynning's NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World's Most Powerful Alliance. The book traces the alliance from its establishment in 1949 through the Cold War, its post-Cold War enlargement and its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[9]
A review forum in International Affairs described the book as a comprehensive account of NATO's history and identified Rynning as a prominent scholar of the alliance.[10] A review in the Financial Times noted that the book examines the political ideas underpinning NATO and argues that the alliance should concentrate on its Euro-Atlantic defence mission.[11]
Honours
Rynning was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 2021.[1] His book NATO in Afghanistan received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title award in 2013.[7]
Selected works
Books
- Changing Military Doctrine: Presidents and Military Power in Fifth Republic France, 1958–2000. Praeger, 2001. ISBN 978-0-275-97286-8 Search this book on
..[12] - NATO Renewed: The Power and Purpose of Transatlantic Cooperation. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 978-1-4039-7065-8 Parameter error in {{ISBN}}: Invalid ISBN. Search this book on ..
- NATO in Afghanistan: The Liberal Disconnect. Stanford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8047-8238-8 Search this book on ..
- Transforming Military Power since the Cold War: Britain, France, and the United States, 1991–2012. With Theo Farrell and Terry Terriff. Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1-107-04432-6 Search this book on ..
- South Asia and the Great Powers: International Relations and Regional Security. Editor. I.B. Tauris, 2017. ISBN 978-1-78453-753-1 Search this book on ..
- War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power. Co-edited with Olivier Schmitt and Amélie Theussen. Brookings Institution Press, 2021. ISBN 978-0-8157-3894-7 Search this book on ..
- NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World's Most Powerful Alliance. Yale University Press, 2024. ISBN 978-0-300-27011-2 Search this book on ..
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Danish Institute for Advanced Study Annual Report 2023–2024 (PDF) (Report). University of Southern Denmark. p. 7. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Sten Rynning to be the new director of the Danish Institute for Advanced Study". University of Southern Denmark. 7 June 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Sten Rynning". University of Southern Denmark Research Portal. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Sten Rynning". Danish Institute for Advanced Study. University of Southern Denmark. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ Rynning, Sten; Ringsmose, Jens (January 2008). "Why Are Revisionist States Revisionist? Reviving Classical Realism as an Approach to Understanding International Change". International Politics. 45 (1): 19–39. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800217.
- ↑ Rynning, Sten (May 2015). "The false promise of continental concert: Russia, the West and the necessary balance of power". International Affairs. 91 (3): 539–552. doi:10.1111/1468-2346.12285.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "NATO in Afghanistan: The Liberal Disconnect". Stanford University Press. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ Farrell, Theo; Rynning, Sten; Terriff, Terry (2013). Transforming Military Power since the Cold War: Britain, France, and the United States, 1991–2012. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107360143. ISBN 978-1-107-04432-6. Search this book on
- ↑ "NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World's Most Powerful Alliance". Yale University Press. 9 April 2024. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ Messmer, Marion; von Hlatky, Stéfanie; Sen, Somdeep; McCrisken, Trevor; Odgaard, Liselotte; Rynning, Sten (July 2024). "Review forum: NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine". International Affairs. 100 (4): 1763–1773. doi:10.1093/ia/iiae150.
- ↑ Rathbone, John Paul (3 April 2024). "Fragile alliance: Is NATO still up for the fight?". Financial Times. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ "Changing Military Doctrine". Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
External links
- Sten Rynning at the University of Southern Denmark
- Sten Rynning at the Danish Institute for Advanced Study
Category:1967 births
Category:Living people
Category:Danish political scientists
Category:International relations scholars
Category:Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog
Category:Danish non-fiction writers
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