Dr. Damien Van Puyvelde chairs the Intelligence and Security Group at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University. His expertise lies in contemporary intelligence, technology, and security governance in the digital age. He is the author of Outsourcing US Intelligence (Edinburgh University Press) and co-author of Cybersecurity: Politics, Governance and Conflict in Cyberspace (Polity, with Aaron Brantly). He has also co-edited Researching National Security Intelligence and Covert Action (both with Georgetown University Press), and has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Van Puyvelde recently completed an NWO-funded project on “Open-Source Intelligence and the War in Ukraine,” and his forthcoming book on The DGSE will be published by Georgetown University Press in 2026.

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Dr. Damien Van Puyvelde chairs the Intelligence and Security Group at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University. His expertise lies in contemporary intelligence, technology, and security governance in the digital age. He is the author of Outsourcing US Intelligence (Edinburgh University Press) and co-author of Cybersecurity: Politics, Governance and Conflict in Cyberspace (Polity, with Aaron Brantly). He has also co-edited Researching National Security Intelligence and Covert Action (both with Georgetown University Press), and has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Van Puyvelde recently completed an NWO-funded project on “Open-Source Intelligence and the War in Ukraine,” and his forthcoming book on The DGSE will be published by Georgetown University Press in 2026.

His career has followed a highly international trajectory, with positions at research-intensive universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. From 2020 to 2023, he chaired the Intelligence Studies Section of the International Studies Association—the largest global network of scholars in the field—and, prior to joining Leiden University, led the Scottish Centre for War Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Dr. Van Puyvelde is deeply committed to knowledge dissemination both within and beyond academia. He serves on the editorial boards of Intelligence and National Security, the leading journal in the field, and Études Françaises de Renseignement et de Cyber. Beyond academia, he is affiliated with the Strategic Research Institute of the French Ministry of Armed Forces and the Research Centre of the Norwegian Intelligence School. His work has been featured in outlets such as Le Monde and The Washington Post, and he has contributed to public engagement initiatives including at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

Publications