Anders McDonald Sookermany
Anders McD Sookermany (DrPhilos./Maj.) is a faculty member at the Norwegian Defence University College (NDUC), Command and Staff College (C&SC) in Oslo, as well as adjunct associate professor at the Norwegian Police University College in Oslo.
He is a past R&D director at the Command & Staff College and Norwegian School of Sports Sciences Defence Institute. He has also served as the programme director to the NDUC master’s programme in Military Studies. Sookermany holds a doctorate degree in Pedagogical Philosophy from the University of Oslo a master’s degree in Philosophy of Sports from the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences together with an Air Force Staff College education.
His research interests are related to issues of training, performance and culture in uniformed communities of practice with a particular curiosity of challenging the ‘taken-for-granted’. Within this framework, his publications touch upon such issues as learning, skillfulness, expertise, professionalism, meaningfulness of difference, gamechangers, risk, identity, military strategy and philosophy of science.
Currently, Sookermany is heading a project of putting together a major reference work in the field of Military Sciences. Its main purpose is to inform and enlighten those dealing with the military on the role and contributions of science in describing, understanding and explaining military life, knowledge and activity. As such, the aim is to assemble a handbook that offers a comprehensive thematic introduction to various sub-fields of Military Sciences. The handbook itself is published electronically by Springer as a living reference work and is OpenAccess (https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-030-02866-4).
Sookermany is also in the process of launching a new research programme entitled “Making Sense of Military Operations”. The aim of the programme is to explore the scientific foundation of Military Operations as an academic field for the purpose of further research in the field. The intention is to make an eligible contribution to the clarification of how a critical academic approach can be coupled with the military professional’s insider-knowledge in a way that enables a more qualified knowledge development in the field of military operations.
In addition, Sookermany has participated in several national and international committees, councils and working groups. He is former president and now a council member of the International Society of Military Sciences (ISMS), an editorial board member of the Armed Forces & Society journal and Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies.