Professor Neil Kent

Institute Associate

Biography

Career

• University of Cambridge: Associate, Scott Polar Research Institute, since 1992.
• Senior Treasurer: Cambridge University Scandinavian, Russian and Austrian Societies.
• Associate Professor in Geopolitics: Rennes School of Business (Grande École de France), since 2021.
• Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, Academica Press, Washington D.C., since 2018.
• Scientific Board Member of Presses universitaires Rhin & Danube.
• Editorial Board Member of Le Revue de Dialogues Inter-Regionaux, since 2020.
• École speciale militaire de St-Cyr, Associate Professor 2018-2020.
• Academic Fellow: CCD Project 2017-2018.
• Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
• Council member of the Anglo-Swedish Society, London.
• Academic consultant to the Vorontsov Foundation, London.
• Member of the Board of the Lawrence J. Cadbury Foundation.
• Formerly: Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Intelligence and Terrorism Studies; Co-convenor, Cambridge Intelligence Seminars; Fellow of the Cambridge Security Initiative; Professor of European History and Culture, St Petersburg State Academic Institute of Art, Sculpture and Architecture (The Russian Academy of Art); Member of the Board of the Finnish Institute, London and the Nordic Cultural Foundation Project Leader for Research into the Social and Cultural History of Lapland.

Qualifications

• D.Fil., Uppsala University, Sweden, B.A., M.A. Magdalene College, University of Cambridge.
• Fluent in Russian, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Finnish and the Scandinavian languages . Also some literary knowledge of Portuguese, Latin, Classical Greek, Turkic languages (including Ottoman Turkish) and Hungarian, amongst others.

Publications

Books awaiting publication

• A Game of Thrones: The Jacobites, Louis XIV, and the Intellig3ence Battle for the British Isles, Co-authored with Captain Clément Chevalier (École de Guerre, Paris), Academica Press (Washington D.C. and London) 2024.
• Imperial Denmark. The Danish Colonial Empire and the Modern World, Academica Press (Washington D.C. and London) 2025.

Books published

• Bulwark of the Old Regime: France's Royal Swedish Regiment in the French and American Revolutions, Co-authored with Captain Clément Chevalier (École de Guerre, Paris), Academica Press (Washington D.C. and London) 2022.
• A Concise History of the Russian Orthodox Church, Academica Press (Washington D.C. and London) 2021
• (R)evolution: Security Challenges Past and Present, ed with Irina du Quenoy, Academica Press (Washington D.C. and London) 2020.
• Current Trends in Cyber Security, ed with Irina du Quenoy, Academica Press (Washington D.C. and London) 2019.
• Articles on Russia and Scandinavia in the 21st Edition of Sir Banister Fletcher's Global History of Architecture, Katherine Gregg,ed., RIBA (London ) 2019.
• Articles on Russia and Scandinavia in the 21st Edition of Sir Banister Fletcher's Global History of Architecture, Katherine Gregg,ed., RIBA (London ) 2019.
• New Technologies and National Security Challenges, ed with Irina du Quenoy, Academica Press (Washington D.C. and London) 2020.
• Articles on Russia and Scandinavia in the 21st Edition of Sir Banister Fletcher's Global History of Architecture, Katherine Gregg,ed., RIBA (London ) 2019.
• 'On Human Bondage: An Overview of Slavery and the Slave Trade' The Moment Is Now. Carl Bernhard Wadström's Revolutionary Voice on Human Trafficking and the Abolition of the African Slave Trade ed. Anders Hallengren, Swedenborg Foundation (West Chester, Pennsylvania) 2019.
• Current Trends in Cyber Security (co-edited with Irina du Quenoy) Academica Press (Washington, D.C. and London) 2019.
• St Petersburg (Intercities) Signal Books (Oxford), 2017; Chinese edition appearing shortly.
• Italia Rediviva. A Social and Cultural History of Italy. 1740-1900 Academica Press (Washington,D.C., and London), 2017, paperback edition 2019.
• Crimea. A History Hurst & Co (London); Oxford University Press (New York), 2016.
• 'Ukraine: How the EU Blundered into Cold War II ' Visions of Europe II ed. Stephen Hill, Duckworth New Academia (London) 2015.
• Co-authored with Yan Naumkin 'Perception of the Cuban missile crisis in Russia Today' An International History of the Cuban Missile Crisis. A 50-year retrospective David Gioe, Lenn Scott and Christopher Andrew, eds., Routledge (New York) 2014.
• The Sámi Peoples of the North, Hurst and Company (London), 2014, paperback edition 2019.
• (Otso Kortekangas wrote in the Journal of Social History published by Oxford University Press, on 19 September 2019, 'Neil Kent's overview of Sámi history, The Sámi Peoples of the North. A Social and Cultural History, is a rare example of transnational history in a research field dominated by methodological nationalism. The indigenous Sámi people lives across a northern homeland called Sápmi, spanning from Norway in the West, over the northern expanses of Sweden and Finland to northwestern Russia in the East. A vast majority of the scholarly literature on the Sámi, however, treats the history of this population within the boundaries of just one of the four countries. Kent's book is impressive in its inclusion of themes from all around Sápmi, and of sources from many different language.'
• 'Sweden as Ethical Diplomat' Images of Sweden, Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, Stockholm 2011.
• A History of Trieste, Hurst and Company, 2011.
• Студия «A History of the Russian Orthodox Church in England» альманах русский мир. пространство русской културы 2011.
• Студия «Classic Art Ark» альманах русский мир. пространство русской културы 2010.
• Влияние итальянской культуры в Скандинавии в XVIII в., Санкт Петерборг и Севернои Европы 2009.
• A Concise History of Sweden, Cambridge University Press, 2008. Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese editions, as well.
• «Карл Людвилг Знгел и Архитектура имперсково Хельсинки» Санкт Петерборг и Севернои Европы 2008.
• Helsinki. A Cultural and Literary Companion, Signal Books, Oxford 2004.
• Numerous entries in Encyclopaedia of the Arctic (Fitzroy Dearborn) 2004.
• The Soul of the North: a Social, Cultural and Architectural History of the Nordic Countries, Reaktion Books, London 2000 and (in paperback) 2001.
• 2001. (Johan Schloemann wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 10 January 2001, that it was 'an impressive treasure house for the understanding of the Nordic countries.')'Italian Culture and Gustaf III's Sweden' The Influence of Italy on Northern European Culture, Shearer West, ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999. (Jonathan Keates called it a 'landmark' in its field in the Times Literary Supplement on 30 July 1999.)
• 2000. (Paul Binding, in a favourable four page review in The Sunday Telegraph Book Supplement on 9 July of that year wrote, 'Kent...builds up for us many-layered pictures of particular social groups, and even of isolated pockets contradicting most assumptions about the larger whole, all complex and with deep-reaching roots. By doing so, he relates the North more closely to other Western societies.)
• The Dictionary of Art London 1996 (Numerous entries on Nordic culture in this vast multi-volume work, published by MacMillan).
• Finland and Finnish Lapland: a bibliography (Compiled with William Mills, Sylva Gethin and Rosemary Graham) Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge 1992.
• Light and Nature in Late 19th Century Nordic Art and Literature, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Ars Suetica 13, Uppsala 1990.
• The Triumph of Light and Nature: Nordic Art 1740 - 1940, Thames and Hudson, London: 1987 (reprinted in paperback in 1992). (Marina Vaizey wrote in the Sunday Times, on 10 January 1988: Comparing it to a Hayward Gallery publication, she states, 'Even more substantial and much more inclusive is Neil Kent's first book, The Triumph of Light and Nature, which relates northern art to its own cultural and political milieux.... This is the best specific introduction to the entire period...that we have.'

Articles

• Since 2017, numerous articles in Royal United Services Institute Journal, London.
• Since 2017, various articles in International Journal of Turkish Studies.
• 'Abram Petrovich Gannibal' Times Literary Supplement London August 2015.
• Since 2009, various articles in The St Petersburg Times.
• Since 2003, numerous articles in Pod Klutch, the Russian language architectural journal, St Petersburg.
• 2002-2006, monthly column and feature articles in Krasni, the Russian language cultural journal, St Petersburg.
• 'National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and Scandinavian Countries' Times Literary Supplement London: 20 April 2001.
• 'Delacroix and Greuze in Denmark' antiques.co.uk: 7 August 2000.
• 'Mystical Islands and Arcadian Idylls: German Symbolism and its Social Context' antiques.co.uk: 28 June 2000.
• 'Wild Country' Canadian Landscape Painting' antiques.co.uk: 6 June 2000.
• 'Scandinavia and Germany. 1800-1914' Times Literary Supplement, London: 17 July, 1998.
• 'Peter Høeg and Miss Smilla's Sensitivity to Snow' Polar Record, Cambridge: Spring 1995.
• 'Alaskan and Circum-polar Art' Polar Record, Cambridge: Autumn 1994
• 'August Strindberg as an Artist' LEIF. Journal for Culture, Helsinki, Part 1: Winter 1994; Part 2: Spring 1995
• 'The Finnish Forest' Kymmene Publication Papers Review 1 Helsinki: 1994
• 'The Role of the Arctic in the Identity of the North' LEIF. Journal for Culture, Helsinki: January 1993
• 'Christen Købke's Drawings' Apollo, London: April 1993
• 'Finn de Siecle' Times Literary Supplement, London: April 1993
• 'Edvard Munch at the National Gallery in London' commissioned by Burlington Magazine, London 1992
• 'Royal Treasure House. Christian IV's Rosenborg Castle' Antique Collector, London: November 1992
• 'Danish and English 19th Century Painting' Danes Abroad
• 'Anders Zorn as an Etcher' Apollo, London: July 1991
• 'Scandinavian Modernism in Russia' Apollo, London: August 1990
• 'Landscapes from a High Latitude' Apollo, London: April 1990
• 'Nordic Art' Christies International Magazine London: March 1989
• 'Axel Törneman' Link, London: May 1989
• 'Cecilia Sidenbladh: Ty så roar mig att måla. C.J. Almqvist och de visuella konstarterna' Scandinavica, Vol.27, No.2, Norwich, November 1988
• 'Nordic Art' Country Life, London: September 17, 1987
• 'Scandinavian Moods' Country Life, London: September 17, 1987
• 'Eugen, Prince of Sweden' The Antique Collector, London: August 1986
• 'European Furniture in Stockholm' The Antique Collector, London: July 1985
• 'Eighteenth-Century English Furniture in Copenhagen' The Antique Collector, London: January 1985
• 'Queen Christina of Sweden' The Antique Collector, London: November 1984
• 'Heinrich Hirschsprung and the Skagen Painters' The Antique Collector, London: September 1984
• 'Silver. Scandinavian Silver Tankards' The Antique Collector, London: March 1984
• 'Married Couples in Portraiture' The Antique Collector, London: February 1984
• 'Architecture of the Old Westminster Bridge: Charles Labelye (1705-82)' Country Life, London: November 10, 1983