Notes on statecraft, from the Cold War underground to today’s crises.
“Johan Wennström’s contributions on Swedish intelligence services are groundbreaking.”
— Lt Col Joakim Paasikivi
Why subscribe?
Hello, I’m Johan Wennström. Far from an international man of mystery—or a Jim Wormold, Graham Greene’s amateurish spy in Our Man in Havana—my day job is as a research fellow at the Swedish Defence University. I am a regular contributor to UnHerd, and have also written for City Journal, The Spectator and Quillette, among other outlets.
Here I offer independent perspectives on international affairs and statecraft, and take you behind the scenes of intelligence research. I hope to build a community of like-minded readers who see the world with a realist outlook and appreciate the finer details of intelligence history.
Our Man in Stockholm contains the following sections. Essays are longer reads written by me, often drawing on primary research. Contributor essays are by-invitation pieces by outside voices. Dispatches are my briefer reflections on current events. Notebook includes everything from media appearances and archival finds to thoughts on what I am reading at the moment.
The only way to ensure access to everything long-term is to pay for a subscription. This also helps fund my continued research. Sweden does not have a US-style tenture system, so researchers are often reliant on outside funding. Instead of relying mainly on public grants, I prefer to be supported directly by readers.
About Johan Wennström
I have most recently published a comprehensive account of Sweden’s clandestine stay-behind network during the Cold War—a national bestseller whose international edition The Stay Behinds: Sweden’s Cold War Guardians (Osprey/Bloomsbury, 2026) is the first scholarly book in English on any stay-behind organization set up to counter a Soviet occupation. Toby Harnden of SpyTalk calls it “a real service to espionage history”. You can hear me discuss the book on podcasts including Secrets & Spies, Spybrary and SpyCast.
In my own country, Nato’s newest member, I was the first voice warning against over-reliance on Article 5. I’m also the father of Sweden’s blossoming debate over acquiring a nuclear deterrent.
Welcome, and thanks for joining me. If you like what you find here, please recommend it to friends.
— Johan
