Joelien Pretorius is a professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, where she teaches International Relations and Security Studies, and has served several terms as head of department. She is the chair of the South African Pugwash chapter and serves on the steering committee of the African Research and Innovation Hub for Nuclear Disarmament Verification. She forms part of UNIDIR’s nuclear expert network for its science and technology watchtower project. She has published on military technology and defence policy in South Africa, nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament (particularly the South African example), the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, African approaches to nuclear weapons, and security issues more generally. Her approach is transdisciplinary and foregrounds a critical constructivist understanding of military technology and nuclear weapons, and the pursuit of non-violent approaches to conflict resolution. She currently researches the interface between meta-science, science diplomacy and the nuclear case as part of a trans-Atlantic platform project.
Expertise: NPT, Nuclear Disarmament