Joanna van der Merwe

Joanna van der Merwe is a Fellow at the Defense Tech Initiative. She holds an MA in International Relations and Global Conflict in the Modern Era, from Leiden University. She conducted her research in collaboration with the Land Warfare Centre of the Netherlands Ministry of Defence, focusing on Artificial Intelligence and the future of combat. This research built on her previous experience at the Netherlands Army looking at big data on the future battlefield. Joanna is currently the Privacy and Protection Lead at the Centre for Innovation at Leiden University. She has also worked on early warning systems for mass atrocities at the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. She also continues to advise and speak on data and AI in contexts such as policy-making and the future of warfare and defense.