Xavier Guillaume is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and has also taught at the Université de Genève, the University of Edinburgh and Sciences Po Paris. A citizen of Geneva, Switzerland, Xavier was born and raised in Geneva's suburbs by a working poor, divorced mother. Xavier specialises in security and international issues connected to the mundane ways by which people constitute their identities in relation to others, the state, or to other international actors.