July 2024: Dr. Sanne Verschuren (Pardee)
Dr. Sanne Verschuren is an assistant professor of International Security at the Pardee School of Global Studies of Boston University. Her areas of expertise include international security, the development and diffusion of military technology, strategic thinking, the intersection between nuclear and conventional capabilities, and the linkages between national security and climate change. She focusses on how states fight war, examining why they construct novel weapon technologies, how they envision fielding such technologies, and why they choose to abandon certain technologies and practices. Before joining Boston University, Professor Verschuren was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Sciences Po’s Center for International Studies, a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and a predoctoral research fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Her research has been generously supported by the European Commission, the National Science Foundation, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, the Belgian American Education Foundation, the Tobin Project, the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, and the Brown Graduate School.
What made you decide to be a social scientist/ why does social science matter to you?
I have always been fascinated by questions of war and peace: What motivates individuals to engage in conflict? What tools of warfare do states and non-state actors use in war and why? How does conflict get resolved? The social sciences are uniquely positioned to tackle these enduring questions. They offer a wide variety of theoretical and methodological tools to ask about the individual-level, state-level, and international-level determinants of conflict. In my own research, I use elite interviews, archival research, and surveys to better understand how policymakers make decisions about technology and strategy within international security.
Can you tell us about a recent research project that you’re excited about?
I am really excited about the book manuscript that I am currently working on. This will be my first book! Challenging the assumption that states will mimic each other’s military capabilities, I explore why and how states decide to develop very different tools of warfighting within the same domain of warfare. Specifically, my book delves deeper into the development and operationalization of missile defense systems in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and India from 1980 until 2020. Whether we are thinking about the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, or the potential worry about a North Korean missile strike, missile defense systems play an important role in contemporary security. Yet, these systems are typically expensive, technologically complex, and can have negative implications for international stability. Studying why and how states develop them is therefore crucial.
What is the best piece of professional advice you ever received?
Over the years, I have received such wonderful advice from my mentors and peers. Academia can definitely be challenging—so surrounding yourself with people that can support and guide you is key. Turning back to the question at hand, I would say that letting yourself be guided by something that puzzles or frustrates you in the real world is a good way to come up with an interesting research question. In answering that question, I would recommend you to think big. My dissertation co-chair once told me it is much easier to scale down a project than to expand it. My final piece of advice is to read broadly—beyond the standard works in your discipline. In my own work, for example, I use insights from international political economy, social movement literature, political sociology, and Science and Technology Studies.
What is your favorite course you’ve taught at BU?
Tell us a surprising fact about yourself.
I am a really big movie buff. Movies offer a window into the worlds and lives that I am unfamiliar with. When I was sixteen, I was part of a youth film jury in Belgium—the country that I am originally from. We did an exchange with a film festival in South Africa. It was such an eye-opening experience!