Prof Dr Alexander Mattelaer is an assistant professor at the Institute for European Studies and the director of European affairs at Egmont - the Royal Institute for International Relations. His research interests include defence policy-making and NATO, the ongoing redefinition of state sovereignty, the politics of European integration, and the Brexit negotiation process. He is also a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and a senior editor of the online magazine European Geostrategy. Earlier he was the Assistant Director at the Institute for European Studies as well as a Fulbright Schuman fellow at Harvard University and at the National Defense University. He sits on the scientific committee of the Belgian Royal Higher Institute for Defence and on the board of the United Nations Association Flanders/Belgium. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Master degrees from the University of Bath and the University of Leuven. At the Vrije Universiteit Brussel he teaches the courses 'Political Structures and Processes of the European Union' and 'Major Issues of International Conflict'.

Political science and defence studies