Maaike Verbruggen is a PhD Researcher in Emerging Military Technologies at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG-VUB). She specializes in Emerging Military Technologies, Military Innovation, and Arms Control. For her PhD she researches the enablers of and obstacles to Military Innovation in Artificial Intelligence. Maaike Verbruggen has a BA in History and a BSc in Sociology from the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and a MPhil in Peace and Conflict Studies from Universitetet i Oslo, Norway. She has experience working on the societal implications of technology, defence innovation, arms trade, export controls, arms control, and disarmament. Previously, she worked at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI); and she interned at the Department of Arms Control, Non-Proliferation, Disarmament and Export Controls at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and at the Information and Outreach Branch at the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA).
The cross-cutting issues fascinate her. How do different arms control regimes deal with changes in Science & Technology? How will the Fourth Industrial Revolution affect arms acquisition, production, diffusion and diversion? How do states try to keep a grip on defence innovation, in a time where transnational civilian companies are at the forefront of innovation? How do emerging military technologies change the environmental impact of warfare? How has this changed over time, ever since the Industrial Revolution? As a result, she is engaged with a wide range of military technologies, from surveillance technologies to Small Arms and Light Weapons, and from conventional weapons to Weapons of Mass Destruction.