Pieter Balcaen
Biography
Senior Captain Dr. Pieter Balcaen is an officer in the Belgian military. Professionally, he’s a reconnaissance officer with a specialization in intelligence. He conducted six operational deployments in Afghanistan, Mali, Niger and Chad. Academically, he holds a Master in Social and Military Sciences from the Royal Military Academy, a Master in Economics from Ghent University, a Master after Master in Advanced Studies in Economics from the Catholic University of Leuven and a PhD in Defence Economics from the Free University of Brussels. His research focuses on Hybrid Warfare from a defence-economic perspective; encompassing conceptual advancements and in-depth analyses of disinformation tactics and economic warfare. He has published more than a dozen of articles in a wide range of peer-reviewed journals. In 2025, he was selected as a Fellow with the Irregular Warfare Initiative, a partnership between the Modern War Institute at West Point and Princeton University’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Program. He joined the Europe in the World Programme of the Egmont Institute as a Senior Associate Fellow in September 2025.