Dr. Lauren Gould
Senior Researcher
Dr. Lauren Gould is an Assistant Professor in Conflict Studies at Utrecht University and senior researcher within the Afghanistan Project. At Utrecht University she is the project leader of the Intimacies of Remote Warfare programme; an evidence-based research program that informs academic, public, and policy debates on the intimate realities of remote warfare.
Gould work explores how remote warfare by advanced militaries is legitimized, practiced, and contested, as well as how it impacts civilian harm and causes blowback effects.
For the past 5 years she has conducted research on these dynamics in relation to the US African Military Command’s remote interventions in East Africa and the US led remote war against ISIS across Iraq and Syria. For this she has conducted field research in Uganda, South Sudan and in Iraq. Her most recent work - under the Realities of Algorithmic Warfare programme - investigates how autonomous weapon systems are facilitating the next level of remoteness in 21st century warfare. From a conflict and critical security studies perspective her aim is to conceptualise the changing character and nature of warfare in the 21st century.
Gould publishes her research findings widely across not only academic journals and books, but also in op-eds, in-depth reports, podcasts, and across media outlets. See below for a selection.
Finally, she leads a consortium of civil society partners that engage with the Dutch Ministry of Defence to improve their civilian harm transparency and accountability policies and she sits on the board of the Nuhanovic Foundation: Centre for War Reparations.
Gould studied Social Psychology (BA Cum Laude, 2006) and Conflict Studies and Human Rights (MA Cum Laude, 2007) at Utrecht University. In March 2016 she completed her PhD on international criminal law enforcement and the governing of the northern Ugandan conflict. She has taught in the Conflict Studies programme at Utrecht University and the University College of Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam.
Selection of publications
- Gould, L. & Kanetake (2022). The Reverberations of Hawija. Podcast Asymmetrical Haircuts.
- Gould, L., Woudwijk, M., & van Dort, J. (Eds.) (2022). Hawija: De verwoestende werkelijkheid van onze langeafstandsoorlog tegen IS. Soesterberg: Uitgeverij Aspekt.
- Gould L. et al. (2022) After the Strike: Exposing the civilian harm effects of the 2015 Dutch airstrike on Hawija. IRW, PAX for Peace & Al-Ghad, 1- 123.
- Gould, L. & Stel, N. (2021) Strategic ignorance and the legitimation of remote warfare: The Hawija bombardments. Security Dialogue 53, 1-18.
- Demmers, J., Gould, L., & Snetselaar, D. (2020). Perfect war and its contestations. In: S. Maltby, B. O’Loughlin, K. Parry, & L. Roselle (Eds.), Spaces of War, War of Spaces. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Demmers, J. & Gould, L. (2020). The Paradox of Remote Warfare. In: A. McKay, A. Watson and M. Karlshøj-Pedersen (Eds.), Remote Warfare: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. E-International Relations Publishing Collected Volume.
- Gould, L. (2020). Meer oorlog, meer drones. NRC Handelsblad, Opinie & Debat.
- Demmers, J. & Gould, L (2018). An assemblage approach to liquid warfare: AFRICOM and the hunt for Joseph Kony. Security Dialogue 49 (5), 364 - 381.
- Gould, L. M. (2015). The Politics of Portrayal in Violent Conflict: The Case of the Kony 2012 Campaign. Alternatives 39 (4), 207-230.