Prof. Dr Machiko Kanetake

Chair of the Executive Board and Academic Director
Professor of International Law and Security Governance, University of Amsterdam

  • Department:
    Executive Board

Profile

Prof. Dr Machiko Kanetake is the academic director and the chair of the executive board of the T.M.C. Asser Instituut. She is also Professor of International Law and Security Governance at the University of Amsterdam.

Her groundbreaking research explores the intersection of international law, security, human rights, and technology, with a focus on sanctions, arms and dual-use export control at the international, EU, and national levels, and the regulation of surveillance technologies. She also examines how national and regional courts engage with the UN human rights treaty bodies. More broadly, she has been interested in the analysis of interfaces between national and international law.

Her current work centres on “research security” in Europe. While international collaboration drives scientific innovation, growing geopolitical tensions have raised concerns about the unintended transfer of critical knowledge and technology. In response, EU institutions are strengthening research security under the European Economic Security Strategy. In the Netherlands, there are initiatives on ‘knowledge security’ (‘kennisveiligheid’). Building on her expertise in dual-use regulation, Machiko analyses the normative tensions surrounding efforts to secure research within this evolving geopolitical landscape.

Academic background

Machiko earned her PhD from Kyoto University (2011), an LLM from the London School of Economics (2007), and an MA in Law from the University of Sheffield (2004). Prior to her position at the Asser Institute, she was an Associate Professof of Public International Law at Utrecht University and the director of the master's programme in public international law (2014-25), and a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (2011-14). She has also been a Hauser Visiting Doctoral Researcher (2010-11) in the Global Fellows Programme at New York University (NYU) School of Law, a Visiting Researcher (2012) at the University of Sydney, a Visiting Fellow (2014-2015) at the Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School, and a Visiting Fellow (2015) at the Transnational Law Institute, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London.