Areas of Expertise

  • Geoeconomics and geoeconomic diplomacy
  • Sanctions, economic statecraft and coercion, stabilization
  • German and European foreign and security policy
  • Danish/Nordic-German relations

Short Bio

Dr. Kim B. Olsen has been affiliated with DGAP since July 2021 and is currently an associate fellow with its Center for Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, and Technology. Specializing in foreign policy, geoeconomics, stabilization, and human rights, Olsen has served as a senior advisor to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, New York, and Tunis as well as to the German Federal Foreign Office.

Focusing his research on the intersection of global geoeconomic power relations, EU foreign and security policy, and sanctions, Olsen is author of the recent book The Geoeconomic Diplomacy of European Sanctions (BRILL) and a member of the international editorial board of the Hague Journal of Diplomacy. He was part of the expert group “Diplomacy in the 21st Century” at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and has previously worked at the Danish Institute for International Studies; the Center for German and European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; and the Centre for Advanced Security Theory at the University of Copenhagen. 

Olsen holds a PhD from the department of political science at the University of Antwerp. Previously, he studied international relations and international political economy at Freie Universität Berlin; University of California, Berkeley; and University of Copenhagen, from where he graduated in 2012.

Languages

Danish, German, English, French

 

[Last updated: June 2024]

Dr. Kim B. Olsen

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Expertise

Publications

An illustration showing the EU reaching into its Geoeconomics toolbox

The EU’s New Anti-Coercion Instrument Will Be a Success if It Isn’t Used

For the first time, the EU has made a nexus between trade policy, which is the European Commission’s domain, and security policy, which still largely rests with the member states. Its Anti-Coercion Instrument is a deterrence tool.

Dr. Kim B. Olsen
Dr. Claudia Schmucker
IPQ
Quarterly Concerns
European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager speaks as she and fellow EU Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis participate in a Workforce Management into Tech Jobs roundtable during the U.S and European Union trade and investment talks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, September 29, 2021.

Europe’s Next Geoeconomic Task

The European Union is increasingly leveraging its economic might as an asset in foreign and security policymaking. This complex “geoeconomization” of EU foreign policy will necessitate an improved focus on private sector involvement.

Dr. Kim B. Olsen
IPQ