INER - Institute of Northern-European Economic Research
André Röhl
Prof. Dr. André Röhl is a security and resilience strategist whose work connects economic security, critical infrastructure, crisis management, civil preparedness, organizational capability and defence-related institutional capacity. As Director of Security & Defence Economics at INER, he examines how companies, public authorities, municipalities and security institutions can preserve essential functions, adapt under pressure and contribute to the resilience of the wider society.
His career combines military command experience, parliamentary administration, international management consulting, organizational psychology and academic leadership. This distinctive interdisciplinary background enables him to approach security not as an isolated protective function, but as a strategic condition of economic continuity, institutional sovereignty and public trust.
Security as an Economic and Institutional System
Professor Röhl’s work is grounded in a broad conception of security. Modern societies are not protected by individual security measures alone. Their resilience depends on the interaction of functioning institutions, capable people, reliable infrastructure, economic continuity, trusted information and effective cooperation between public and private actors.
This perspective reflects the breadth of his professional career. He served in the German Navy from 1997 to 2009, including responsibilities as a naval security officer, company commander and instructor for officer and non-commissioned officer candidates. His military formation provided direct experience in leadership, operational preparedness, organizational discipline and decision-making under uncertainty.
From 2009 to 2011, he worked within the Parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, focusing on organizational self-protection, security in the Baltic Sea region and civil-military cooperation. He subsequently joined EY Advisory Services, where he managed and advised public-sector projects and contributed to the German EY Defence Team between 2011 and 2015.
Since 2016, Professor Röhl has combined this practical experience with academic research and education at NBS Northern Business School. His work increasingly focuses on the economic and institutional consequences of hybrid threats, infrastructure disruption, geopolitical tension, digital dependency and insufficient crisis preparedness.
The result is a research profile that connects strategic security policy with organizational implementation. Professor Röhl is concerned not only with identifying threats, but with understanding whether institutions possess the structures, skills, information and cooperative capacity required to remain effective when normal operating conditions deteriorate.
Director of the Department of Security & Defence Economics
As Director of Security & Defence Economics, Professor Röhl leads INER’s research into the economic foundations of security, resilience and strategic autonomy. The department examines how industrial capacity, critical infrastructure, economic security, civil preparedness, human competence and institutional coordination influence the ability of Northern-European societies to withstand disruption and preserve freedom of action.
His approach broadens the conventional understanding of defence economics. Defence capability does not begin with procurement and does not end with military expenditure. It also depends on functioning companies, secure supply chains, resilient municipalities, reliable infrastructure, available skills, protected information, public-private cooperation and an economy capable of maintaining essential services under pressure.
The department therefore studies the security architecture surrounding formal defence institutions. It examines the civil, economic and organizational systems that sustain national preparedness, allied mobility, crisis response and societal continuity.
Department Priorities Under His Direction
Economic Security
The protection of economic capacity, strategic knowledge, critical business processes and essential supply relationships against disruption, coercion, espionage and sabotage
Defence-Economic Resilience
The civilian, industrial and institutional capabilities required to sustain security policy, deterrence and national preparedness
Critical Infrastructure
The resilience of energy, transport, communications, logistics, public administration and other systems essential to economic and social continuity
Crisis and Continuity Management
The structures through which organizations anticipate disruption, preserve vital processes and restore operational capacity
Civil Preparedness
The role of municipalities, companies, citizens and public authorities in preparing for large-scale emergencies and prolonged systemic stress
Hybrid Threats
The interaction of physical disruption, cyber risk, disinformation, espionage, economic coercion and strategic ambiguity
Security Workforce and Competence
The human capabilities, professional profiles and educational systems required for a more demanding security environment
Intelligence and Decision Support
The responsible use of open-source intelligence, data analysis and AI-supported processes for anticipation and crisis decision-making
From Protection Costs to Strategic Capacity
Security is often treated as a cost center whose value becomes visible only after an incident. Professor Röhl’s work rejects this narrow interpretation. Security is an economic capability because it determines whether organizations can maintain production, protect knowledge, honour commitments, preserve assets and recover from disruption.
A company that cannot sustain essential processes during a power failure, cyber incident, supply-chain breakdown or geopolitical crisis is not merely insecure. It is economically vulnerable. A municipality that cannot coordinate information, resources and emergency functions loses institutional effectiveness. A state whose companies and infrastructure operators are unprepared cannot translate formal security policy into practical resilience.
Security and defence economics must therefore examine the full cost of disruption as well as the value of preparedness. This includes operational interruption, loss of trust, delayed recovery, workforce unavailability, cascading supply-chain effects, regulatory exposure and the strategic consequences of dependency.
The Model of Double Resilience
A central contribution to Professor Röhl’s research is the Model of Double Resilience, developed with Rico Kerstan. The framework responds to a recurring weakness in resilience policy: organizations frequently concentrate either on preventing disruption or on responding to it, while neglecting the relationship between internal capability and external cooperation.
The model connects two dimensions. The first distinguishes resistance from coping capacity: the ability to prevent or mitigate a crisis and the ability to manage it once it occurs. The second distinguishes the internal organizational ecosystem from the external ecosystem of partners, authorities, suppliers and other stakeholders. Their combination produces four mutually dependent resilience perspectives.
Nano-Resilience
Prevention within the Organization
Nano-resilience comprises the internal capabilities through which an organization prevents, detects or mitigates a crisis. It includes risk awareness, early warning, protective measures, reliable processes and an organizational culture capable of identifying weak signals before they become operational failures.
Micro-Resilience
Organizational Performance during Crisis
Micro-resilience describes the ability of an organization to function once disruption has occurred. It includes crisis leadership, decision-making, communication, situational awareness, resource allocation and the ability to act under incomplete information.
Meso-Resilience
Preparedness across Organizational Boundaries
Meso-resilience concerns the external relationships required before a crisis. It includes business-continuity arrangements, supplier coordination, resource agreements, stakeholder planning and the preparation of cooperation structures that cannot be improvised after normal operations have already failed.
Macro-Resilience
Collective Capacity to Cope
Macro-resilience describes the ability of organizations, public authorities and other stakeholders to support one another during a crisis. It concerns the coordinated use of resources, information and capabilities across institutional boundaries.
Framework Principle
Sustainable resilience requires all four perspectives. Internal prevention without external cooperation remains incomplete. Crisis-management structures without prior preparation remain fragile. External networks without capable organizations cannot deliver. Resilience must therefore be built as an integrated institutional system.
Northern Europe as an Interdependent Security Space
Northern Europe combines high levels of economic integration with extensive dependence on maritime routes, energy systems, digital infrastructure and cross-border supply chains. The region’s openness is a source of prosperity, but also creates exposure to disruption and strategic pressure.
Professor Röhl’s Northern-European perspective developed through his work on security in the Baltic Sea region, civil-military cooperation and European security structures. His research considers resilience not only within individual states, but across the institutional and economic systems connecting Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltic states and the wider European security environment.
For INER, this perspective is especially important. Northern-European security depends on the capacity to protect ports, energy networks, transport corridors, digital systems, industrial knowledge and public institutions while maintaining the openness on which the region’s economies depend.
From Internal Security to a European Resilience Architecture
Professor Röhl’s work also examines resilience within the European security order. He has co-authored research on resilience as an emerging dimension of the European Security Union and contributed to publications on European civil-security education.
A European resilience architecture must connect legal frameworks, national responsibilities, infrastructure operators, companies, municipalities and citizens. It must also recognize that disruption can cross borders more rapidly than institutional responses.
His research therefore emphasizes compatibility among national systems, shared professional standards, cross-border learning and a wider understanding of security that includes economic continuity and organizational capacity.
Research and Areas of Expertise
Security and Defence Economics
The economic and institutional capabilities required to sustain security, preparedness and strategic autonomy
Economic Security
Protection of companies, technologies, strategic knowledge, supply chains and productive capacity
Crisis and Emergency Management
Leadership, coordination, communication and decision-making under uncertainty
Civil Preparedness
Cooperation among municipalities, companies, public institutions and citizens before and during large-scale emergencies
Intelligence and OSINT
Structured information collection and analysis for early warning, corporate security and strategic decision support
Security Labour Markets
Changing occupational profiles, skill requirements and workforce availability within the security sector
Organizational Resilience
The ability of institutions to prevent disruption, manage crises, preserve continuity and adapt over time
Critical Infrastructure
Resilience of essential services and the interdependencies connecting physical, digital and organizational systems
Business Continuity Management
Identification of vital processes, impact assessment, continuity strategies and operational recovery
Hybrid Threats
The interaction of cyber, physical, informational, economic and geopolitical pressure
Competence Management
Development and assessment of the human capabilities required in security organizations
Civil-Military Cooperation
Institutional coordination between military requirements and civilian capabilities
Research Approach
Professor Röhl’s research combines political science, organizational psychology, security management and operational experience. Its purpose is to understand not only which risks exist, but how institutions can build the capability to act when risk becomes reality.
Resilience before Compliance Alone
Regulatory conformity is important, but it does not guarantee that an organization can remain functional during disruption.
Prevention and Response Together
Organizations must both reduce the likelihood and impact of crises and retain the ability to manage events that cannot be prevented.
Human Judgment before Technological Dependence
Data and AI can improve situational awareness, but accountability remains with trained decision-makers.
Adaptation before Restoration Alone
Resilience is not simply a return to the previous state. Organizations must learn and adjust when the operating environment has changed.
Systems before Isolated Assets
Infrastructure, companies, authorities and citizens form interconnected security ecosystems. Weakness in one area may create consequences across the system.
Capability before Documentation
Plans, policies and guidelines have value only when people can apply them under real conditions.
Cooperation before Improvisation
Interorganizational relationships must be prepared before a crisis. Cooperation cannot begin with the exchange of business cards during an emergency.
Economic Continuity as Security
The preservation of essential business and infrastructure functions is a central component of societal security.