Paul van Hooft

Dr. Paul van Hooft is an expert on great power politics and grand strategy, and his research focuses on American grand strategy, European defence and security, transatlantic relations, power competition in the Indo-Pacific, nuclear strategy, deterrence, arms control, and alliances.

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At the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, Van Hooft heads the Europe in the Indo-Pacific program, the Future of Transatlantic Relations program, and the Strategic Stability, Deterrence, and Arms Control program. He joined the Centre in 2020 as a Senior Strategic Analyst.

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Van Hooft attained his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Amsterdam (UVA). He was a postdoctoral fellow from 2018 to 2020 at the Security Studies Program (SSP) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including as a 2018-2019 Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, and he was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI) from 2016 to 2018. Van Hooft received the 2016 prize from the Dutch and Flemish political science associations for his dissertation on the impact of experiences with war on postwar grand strategy.

Van Hooft’s research has been published in Security Studies, International Politics, and War on the Rocks. He has written for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as contributed to volumes on the future of war, extended nuclear deterrence, and NATO enlargement.

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Beyond research, Van Hooft appears in media, including podcasts, tv, and radio, and also writes for Dutch newspapers. Van Hooft also teaches on grand strategy at Leiden University.