Community of Practice

Therese Heltberg

Therese Heltberg is a social scientist at the Institute for Leadership and Organisation at the Royal Danish Defence College. She holds a PhD in sociology and has a degree in Middle East Studies. Her main research interests concern the relationship between the construction, sense-making, and practicing of knowledge, particularly in relation to military leadership and operations planning. She is currently involved in projects concerning operations planning, doctrine development, military leadership development, design thinking, and MDO.

A central focus for her is to contribute to making defence forces continuously consider what futures we want to create. How can we think in different ways and solutions when facing current and future challenges, in order to contribute to creating holistic and desired solutions? How can we break free from habitual perceptions and ways-of-doing in order to provide ourselves with new perspectives and possibilities for action?

Therese has previously worked with human rights in Nepal, development of drug misuse treatment in prisons, and development of conceptual and practical tools for the Danish Police. She is an avid tango dancer, climber, and loves literature; and she tries to combine inspiration and insights from all spheres of life in her work, aiming at expanding and – sometimes – dismantling some of the fixed categories we often make use of.