# Olivier Schmitt

> Olivier Schmitt is professor and head of research at the Institute for Military Operations at the Royal Danish Defence College.

Source: https://ras-nsa.ca/en/expert/olivier-schmitt/
Modified: 2026-08-21

Olivier Schmitt is professor and head of research at the [Institute for Military Operations](https://www.fak.dk/da/forskning-og-udvikling/institut-for-militare-operationer/) at the Royal Danish Defence College. He's also a senior non-resident associate fellow at the [NATO Defence College](https://www.ndc.nato.int/research/research.php?icode=7), and an associate at [RAND Europe.](https://www.rand.org/randeurope/about/staff/associates.html) He's currently an associate editor of the [European Journal of International Security](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-international-security)and a board member of the [Journal of Strategic Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fjss20/current) and of the [Review of International Studies](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-international-studies). He's a founding member of the French Association for War and Strategic Studies ([AEGES](http://www.aeges.fr/)), of which he was vice-president and scientific director, and a board member of the European Initiative for Security Studies ([EISS](https://eiss-europa.com/)).

Before joining the Royal Danish Defence College, he obtained a Ph.D from the department of War Studies, King’s College London, and was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Montreal Center for International Studies (CÉRIUM). He then joined the [Center for War Studies](https://www.sdu.dk/en/cws) (University of Southern Denmark – SDU) in 2015, first as an associate professor, and was later promoted to professor. He holds MA degrees from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva) and Sciences Po Aix. A reserve officer in the French air and space force, he has policy experience at the French MoD and NATO. He also worked for two think-tanks: the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Between 2020 and 2022, he was on secondment from SDU, serving as director of research and studies at the French Institute of Higher National Defence Studies (IHEDN).