At the academy meeting on May 15, Lieutenant Colonel Carl Bergquist, Strategic Advisor Lars Burström, Departmental Counsellor Annika Brändström, Head of Operational Area Rickard Knutsson, Director General Dag Hartelius and Secretary General Anna Wieslander were elected as new members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Military Sciences.

At the same time, Colonel Ilmars A. Lejins Latvia, Colonel Bruce Acker and Policy Director Svein Efjestad Norway were named as members.

Carl Bergquist is a lieutenant colonel and commander of a fighter division at F 7. In addition to a career in the air force, he has served internationally. In addition to higher education at FHS, he has completed the Advanced Command and Staff Course in Shrivenham in England. He also received a Master of Arts at King's College in London. He has also studied Middle Eastern Studies at Luleå University of Technology and Security Policy Analysis and Russia Analysis at Uppsala University. He is known for his blog Wiseman.

Lars Burstrom is a strategic advisor to the General Directorate of the Swedish Academy of Sciences and FMV's Chief Legal Officer. He is a trained aerospace engineer and was, until his officer retirement, head of the Command and Control System Area at FMV. He has been an expert in two government investigations and is a regular member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' National Committee for Radio Science.

Annika Brandstrom is a ministerial advisor and head of the Office for Crisis Management in the Government Offices. She has a doctorate in political science and a phil.ma. from Stockholm University. She has been an investigative secretary in a government investigation into national crisis management.

Richard Knutsson is the Head of the Department of Civil Defence and Crisis Preparedness Analysis at the Swedish National Veterinary Institute. He has a PhD in Agronomy and has completed a strategic management development course at the Swedish Veterinary Institute. He has been published in a number of works and has also participated in the Academy's research and study project KV21.

Day Hartenlius is Director General at FRA. He has a B.A. degree. He has been ambassador to Tallinn, Warsaw and EU/Brussels. From 1999 to 2003 he was head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' unit for Russia and Eastern Europe.

Anna Wieslander is Secretary General of the Swedish National Defence Association and Director Northern Europe, Atlantic Council. Before that, she was Head of Communications and Deputy Director at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs. She has a Master of Arts in Political Science from Lund University and has completed FHS higher total defence education. She has been published in a number of works.

Ilmars A. Lejinš is a Latvian colonel and is currently undergoing higher staff training at the Baltic Defence College. He will then become Assistant Chief of Staff (ACOS) for Joint Force Development at NATO's Allied Command Transformation, Norfolk USA.

He was trained as an officer in Sweden and graduated as an infantry officer in 1996. He has served at all levels and in 2016 he was appointed brigade commander of the Latvian Mechanized Brigade.

Bruce Acker is CEO of Acker Enterprises AB. He has a background as a colonel in the US Air Force. He has been the US Defense Attaché in Sweden and in Malaysia. From 1997-2000 he was the commander of the “320th Missile Squadron”. He is educated at the Air Force Academy (BS), the US Air Force Institute of Technology (MS) and the Air War College (MA- Strategic studies).

Svein Efjestad is Policy Director at the Norwegian Ministry of Defence (the highest official at the ministry) and in that role is primarily responsible for international security policy cooperation both within NATO and bilaterally. Before that, he was Head of the Security Policy Department at the Norwegian Ministry of Defence (1995-2013). He has a master's degree from the University of Oslo.