Former director of intelligence to lead geopolitical initiative at CBS
CBS aims to strengthen the ability of the business community to navigate in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical world. CBS is now establishing Denmark’s first research platform in Geopolitics and Business Security, bringing together research in international security and business leadership
Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen has advised a long list of top politicians and civil servants on threats, radicalisation and espionage. Now she and other CBS researchers will help business leaders operate in a world where large parts of the established order have been disrupted.
She comes from a position as Director of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, which she has held since 2021, during a period marked by the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East and heightened cyber and sabotage threats.
“ First, we will engage in dialogue with companies and relevant authorities to jointly identify where we need to put more focus. ” Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, Vice Dean, CBS
“In my previous job, I was responsible for ensuring that our elected representatives, the Danish Defence and the civil service had the best possible knowledge to make decisions, but it has become increasingly clear that if we want to safeguard Denmark’s and Europe’s security and prosperity, we need a broad effort in which not only the authorities but also civil society and companies play important roles. Danish companies are affected by geopolitical uncertainty and hybrid threats. Today, geopolitics and security policy are not just about states – they affect all of us, and we need to find knowledge-based solutions together,” says Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen. She elaborates:
“This can be about research on sound risk management, robust supply chains, the ability to work with scenarios and adapt when the unexpected happens. It can be about strong collaboration with public authorities to protect the critical infrastructure we all rely on. First, we will engage in dialogue with companies and relevant authorities to jointly identify where we need to put more focus. We already know, for example, from the Confederation of Danish Industry’s analyses that geopolitics is high on the agenda of Danish companies.”
Business community plays a greater part
According to Peter Møllgaard, President of CBS, Geopolitics and Business Security is a new strategic initiative at the university:
“We see a need to strengthen Denmark’s competitiveness, resilience and security by enhancing Danish companies’ ability to operate in a world marked by growing geopolitical uncertainty. The business community plays an ever greater part in society’s resilience, and with our strong research environments in business and leadership, it is natural for us to generate new knowledge in collaboration with companies and other actors,” he explains.
In practice, this means that Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen will bring together and make visible the research that already exists at CBS and is relevant in a geopolitical context, while also leading new initiatives in areas where research-based answers are still lacking.
“I am really looking forward to this task, and it is also what makes this position so attractive for me. I bring security policy expertise, while CBS contributes business and leadership expertise. We have a unique potential to engage with Danish companies and leaders in both the public and private sectors,” says Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, as words such as risk management, misinformation, hybrid warfare and disruption fill the air in her new office, but also words such as security, prosperity and safety.
Shaped by her local community and a field study
The former intelligence chief makes no secret of the fact that a major driving force in her career has been to help preserve Scandinavian values – primarily democracy, but also our fundamental trust in the authorities and in one another.
That sense of trust perhaps goes back to her childhood in Tårs, a small town in Vendsyssel, Northern Jutland.
“I grew up in a small local community built on trust. Of course, I did not think about it at the time, but later, during my field studies when I accompanied Danish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to follow their efforts to create civil reconstruction, I realised what it means to live in some of the world’s least safe, least secure and least democratic countries,” she explains and adds:
“You can point to all sorts of flaws and shortcomings in our democracy, but I have a deep sense of gratitude for being a citizen of this country and a strong motivation to help preserve and protect it – including the business community, which forms the foundation of our prosperity and security.”