Magnus Nordenman is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
He currently serves as head of international programs at CHAOS Industries, a defense technology company specializing in next-generation sensing, detection, and communications systems for defense, government, and critical infrastructure sectors. Before this role, Nordenman was a senior manager with Lockheed Martin’s corporate strategy team, where he developed and managed the generation of market, defense, and international-security insights that informed the company’s strategy development and supported prioritized international business development efforts. He also previously served as the international market analysis lead with Lockheed Martin’s corporate business development team.
Previously, Nordenman served in various positions with the Atlantic Council, most recently as the director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative. In this role, he led a team of analysts, experts, and former senior officials focused on conducting research and analysis on a wide range of issues related to European defense and security. Nordenman also served as the deputy director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Before joining the Atlantic Council, he worked as a defense analyst with International Technology and Trade Associates, a boutique consulting company in Washington, DC. In this role, he focused on US military operations in the Middle East, the base realignment and closure process, and the then-emerging unmanned aerial vehicle market. He has also worked as a consultant for international defense companies as well as for several business intelligence companies.
Nordenman is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and earned his MA in national security studies from the Patterson School of Diplomacy at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of the 2018 book The New Battle for the Atlantic: Emerging Naval Competition with Russia in the Far North, published by the US Naval Institute, and a chapter author in Winning Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict. He has lectured at, among others, the NATO Defense College, NATO’s Allied Maritime Command, US Second Fleet, the US Naval War College, and the Norwegian Air Force Academy. His commentary and insights have been featured by Defense News, Defense One, Defense & Aerospace Report, the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets.