Director of Research
Dr. Tim Sweijs is the Director of Research at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). Dr. Sweijs’ work is multidisciplinary in nature and straddles political science, science and technology, strategic studies, and war studies. He is the initiator, creator and author of numerous books, articles and studies on strategic foresight, interstate coercion (compellence and deterrence), war’s past, present and future, emerging technologies, international norms and regimes, alliances and alignments, defence and national security planning for small and middle powers, and strategy and capability development.
For close to two decades, he has advised international organisations, governments and defence departments across the globe. Dr. Sweijs has provided expert testimony to the United Nations Security Council, the European Parliament, the Dutch Parliament, as well as to NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly. He regularly comments on international affairs in national and international media and (guest-)lectures at the Netherlands Defence Academy, Leiden University, and King’s College London. He teaches an advanced graduate and executive staff command course on the future of war.
At HCSS, Dr. Sweijs is responsible for the overall research portfolio of the entire institute, spearheading a staff of over 30 researchers and a large network of affiliated subject matter experts, working on international and national security. Dr. Sweijs is also a Research Affiliate at the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute for Technology in the United States. He serves as a board member at the European Initiative for Security Studies where he chairs the War, Coercion and Statecraft Working Group. He is also the Scientific Advisor to the Secretariat of the Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain, an initiative of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He holds degrees in War Studies (PhD, MA), International Relations (Msc) and Philosophy (BA) from King’s College, London and the University of Amsterdam.
In addition to many reports and articles, recent book projects include volumes on future war titled Beyond Ukraine: Debating the Future of War (Oxford University Press / Hurst 2024) and on defence planning titled Defence Planning for Small and Middle Powers: Rethinking Force Development in An Age of Disruption (Routledge 2024), a book on coercion and interstate crisis escalation titled The Use and Utility of Ultimata in Coercive Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan 2023) – access the dataset, codebook and case narratives at www.coercivediplomacy.com as well as two other volumes titled Deterrence in the 21st Century: Insights from Theory and Practice (Asser-Springer 2021) and The Conduct of War in the 21st Century Kinetic, Connected and Synthetic (Routledge 2021).
Recent:
Tim Sweijs & Jeffrey H. Michaels (eds.), Beyond Ukraine: Debating the Future of War (Hurst/Oxford University Press: 2024) https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/beyond-ukraine/.
Other Work
The Use and Utility of Ultimata in Coercive Diplomacy (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)
Access the dataset, codebook and case narratives at www.coercivediplomacy.com.
Empty Promises? A Year Inside the World of Multi-Domain Operations w/ Davis Ellison for War on the Rocks
Mind the Middle Powers, a commentary for War on the Rocks with Michael Mazarr
Beyond Deterrence: an article in Contemporary Security Policy with Samuel Zilincik
