Dr. Margriet Drent is a former Senior Research Fellow at the Security Unit of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ in the Hague. She is currently seconded on a half-time basis to the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to evaluate the Dutch policies on CSDP and NATO.
Margriet headed the Security Unit at Clingendael from 2015-2018. She specialises in security and defence with a specific focus on the EU as a Security Actor and the Common Security and Defence Policy. She is also a member of the Peace and Security Committee of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV). From 2008 to 2015 Margriet was Assistant Professor at the International Relations Department of Groningen University, where she lectured on international security, theory of International Relations and the EU as a security actor.
In 2014-2015 she also lectured at the International Relations Department of Leiden University. In 2010 she was awarded her PhD on the 'Europeanization of security', focusing on the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Until 2004, Margriet was Executive Director of the Groningen-based Centre for European Security Studies where she managed and designed projects aimed at enhancing the democratic governance of armed forces in Central and Eastern European countries.
Next to her membership of the Peace and Security Committee of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV), Margriet is member of the Defence Advisory group of the Dutch Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid) and the Dutch Chapter of Women in International Security (WIIS). She is also PhD supervisor at Groningen University.