23/06/2026
🇳🇴 What a year! Thank you Forsvarets høgskole (FHS)- Norwegian Defense University College (NDUC), for being an amazing host during my 2025-2026 Sabbatical. It was due to your collaboration, research help, and colleagues I was able to accomplish the following:
✅ Wrote and submitted my first book on Deterrence with Wiley (publishing Feb 2027).
✅ Presented a few book chapters to security students at Oslo New University (Hilde Restad & Pål Røren), the Försvarshögskolan (July Decarpentrie), and NDUC (Håkon Lunde Saxi, Johannes Kibsgaard, Marit Rye-Ramberg w/ others).
✅ Wrote and submitted a book chapter for Robert Johnson and Janne Haaland Matlary on meeting hybrid threats with multi-domain ops and cross-domain deterrence (publishing Dec 2026) with Hurst Publishing.
✅ Published an article co-written with my students (Nate Ostdiek) on the Chinese Limited Deterrence Strategy with support from National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI) at the University of Nebraska.
✅ Hosted a workshop at NDUC to collect data on the Instruments of Power (next workshop Spring 2027- DM if interested in attending).
✅ Collaborated, wrote, and submitted three grant proposals.
✅ Researched and wrote on the cyber-physical nexus, documenting various levels of impact for National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE)(w/ Sushmita Sengar and Deanna House).
✅ Submitted and received R&R on a journal article co-written with students about Russian deterrence narratives (Lauren Moss).
👋 I will miss you, NDUC (and Scandinavia), and all your hospitality, the discussions, debates, logical thinking, insight, and even the winter. *skål* 🇳🇴
Dr. Michelle Black-Dirks,
Oslo, Norway, June 2026
