Damien Van Puyvelde chairs the Intelligence and Security Group of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University. His expertise lies in contemporary intelligence, technology and cybersecurity. His contributions to the field include books on Outsourcing US Intelligence (Edinburgh University Press), Cybersecurity: Politics, Governance and Conflict in cyberspace (Polity) together with Aaron Brantly, a co-edited volume on Researching National Security Intelligence (Georgetown University Press), as well as 20 peer-reviewed journal articles. Damien is currently completing an NWO project on Open-source intelligence and the war in Ukraine. His next book, DGSE: France’s foreign intelligence agency, will be published by Georgetown University Press.
Damien Van Puyvelde chairs the Intelligence and Security Group of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University. His expertise lies in contemporary intelligence, technology and cybersecurity. His contributions to the field include books on Outsourcing US Intelligence (Edinburgh University Press), Cybersecurity:Politics, Governance and Conflict in cyberspace (Polity) together with Aaron Brantly, a co-edited volume on Researching National Security Intelligence (Georgetown University Press), as well as 20 peer-reviewed journal articles. Damien is currently completing an NWO project on Open-source intelligence and the war in Ukraine. His next book, DGSE: France’s foreign intelligence agency, will be published by Georgetown University Press.
Damien’s career has followed a highly international trajectory, having held positions at research-intensive universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands. From 2020 to 2023, he chaired the largest network of intelligence studies researchers in the world: the Intelligence Studies Section of the International Studies Association. Prior to joining Leiden University, he led the Scottish Centre for War Studies at the University of Glasgow.
Damien is committed to knowledge dissemination both within and beyond academia. He serves on the editorial boards of Intelligence and National Security, the premier journal in the field, and the newly established Etudes 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. He has made several contributions to popular media such as Le Monde and The Washington Post, and assisted the International Spy Museum with its latest exhibition.
