Oscar A. Jonsson, New Academic Director of the Center for the Governance of Change

Jonsson has an extensive experience in emerging technologies’ impact on strategic affairs and geopolitics and has advised governments, armed forces’ leadership and financial institutions.

IE University has announced the appointment of Oscar A. Jonsson as the new Academic Director of the Center for the Governance of Change (CGC). He will continue to develop the center as a top applied research institution in the field of emerging technologies and their political, economic, and societal implications.

Jonsson has earlier been Director of the Stockholm Free World Forum, a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley and a subject-matter expert at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters. He holds a PhD from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

His research focuses on the impact of emerging technologies on modern statecraft and conflict, and in particular Russian modern warfare. He is the author of The Russian Understanding of War (Georgetown University Press), which is on the Commander of US Special Forces’ reading list for 2020, and finalist for the Association of American Publisher’s award for Scholarly and Professional Excellence in Social Sciences 2020. His PhD-thesis received the Munich Security Conference’s John McCain Dissertation award.

“Understanding what the future may look like in the intersection between technology, geo-power and society in a global environment is ever more important, as the current COVID19 shows.”

Susana Malcorra

“Understanding what the future may look like in the intersection between technology, geo-power and society in a global environment is ever more important, as the current COVID19 shows. The work of the CGC in fields such as the future of health, impact of digitalization or artificial intelligence, offers us an incredible platform to analyze and anticipate global trend,” said Susana Malcorra, Dean of IE School of Global and Public Affairs.

“With his knowledge and expertise in strategic affairs and geopolitical risks, Oscar A. Jonsson brings a new dimension to the Center. I warmly welcome him and am looking forward to working with him,” she added.

“The current pandemic and economic crisis is just underlining the importance of the work of the Center for the Governance of Change,” highlights Jonsson in this video, in which he anticipates the next projects and opportunities of this educational institution based at IE University.