Veerle Nouwens is Executive Director of IISS-Asia. She formerly held the posts of Interim Executive Director and Shangri-La Dialogue Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Defence and Strategy. Veerle’s expertise lies in Chinese foreign and defence policy, as well as the wider Indo-Pacific defence and security environment including European engagement in the region. She plays a key part in organising the annual IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, provides intellectual direction for IISS research on the Asia-Pacific, and works to enhance further the profile of the IISS across the region and beyond. Prior to joining the IISS, Veerle worked as Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, where she established the Indo-Pacific Programme and focused on China and Indo-Pacific security, and as a policy officer in the political section of the European Union’s Delegation in Singapore. She has previously worked in a range of think tanks and international organisations on topics of foreign policy, security and defence. Veerle holds a BA Hons in international relations and political science from Macquarie University, a Master’s in international relations and diplomacy from Leiden University in conjunction with the Clingendael Institute, an MPhil in modern Chinese studies from the University of Oxford and Peking University, and has attended a Mandarin semester programme at Tsinghua University. Ms. Nouwens is bilingual in English and Dutch, and is proficient in Mandarin and French.