Anneleen van der Meer

Anneleen van der Meer is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University's Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA). She specializes in chemical weapons research, focusing on their strategic use and the impact of norm transgression on international relations during wartime. She also serves as Programme Director of the BSc Security Studies program.

Education:

• MLitt in Strategic Studies, University of St Andrews
• PhD in Strategic Studies, University of St Andrews

Her research examines how the use of chemical weapons creates liminality (transitional disorder) in warfare, affecting military momentum, morale, and political allegiances. She has analyzed this through case studies of the Soviet-Afghan War, Iran-Iraq War, and Syrian Civil War.

This work builds on her 2023 doctoral thesis titled Strategies of chemical warfare: understanding the purposes of norm transgression in war, which argues that chemical weapons are strategically employed not despite international norms but because of their symbolic power to disrupt order and communicate resolve.