Eirik Brazier

Eirik C. Brazier is a historian and associate professor of military history at the Norwegian Military Academy, Norwegian Defence University College. He holds a PhD in history from the European University Institute (2013), where his dissertation examined British officers in Canada and Australia between approximately 1870 and 1914. The dissertation explored, among other themes, civil–military relations, imperial defence, and the development of the military profession. Before joining the Norwegian Military Academy in 2026, he was associate professor of history at the University of South-Eastern Norway. 

Brazier’s research broadly examines the relationship between war, military institutions, society, and state power from the late nineteenth century to the present. His main research interests include military history, the First World War, the history of intelligence and surveillance, the development of the military profession, and civil–military relations. He has also worked on propaganda and influence, wartime migration, imperial history, and Norwegian participation in wars and military conflicts outside Norway. 

A recurring question in his research is how war and security challenges shape military organisations and state institutions: how they collect and use information, how they learn and adapt, and how technology, organisation, and social change affect military practice. His current research includes work on military change and adaptation, the relationship between technology, command, and operations, the development of intelligence and surveillance regimes, and historical studies of the military profession and professional identity. A separate project examines how Soldatens bok and its successor, Håndbok for soldaten, have since the early twentieth century communicated ideas about the role of the soldier, conscription, loyalty, ethics, and the relationship between the Norwegian Armed Forces and society. 

Brazier has published both academic and popular works on war and military history. His books include En kort introduksjon til første verdenskrig [A Short Introduction to the First World War] (Cappelen Damm Akademisk, 2025), De ukjente krigerne: Nordmenn i første verdenskrig [The Unknown Warriors: Norwegians in the First World War] (with Nik. Brandal and Ola Teige, 2014), and Norske krigsdekorasjoner for innsats under andre verdenskrig [Norwegian War Decorations for Service during the Second World War] (with Kjetil Henriksen and Sindre Weber, 2017). He has also published research on propaganda and influence activities in Norway during the First World War, the emergence of modern state surveillance in Scandinavia, wartime migration and control, and the officer profession in the British Empire.

• World War II
• Global history
• British History
• First World War