Rob de Wijk is the founder of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) and Professor of International Relations and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University. He studied Contemporary History and International Relations at Groningen University, and wrote his PhD dissertation on NATO’s ‘Flexibility in Response’ strategy at the Political Science Department of Leiden University. Prof. De Wijk started his career in 1977 as a freelance journalist and later became head of the Defense Concepts Department of the Dutch Ministry of Defense, head of the Security Studies at the Clingendael Institute, and Professor of International Relations at the Royal Netherlands Military Academy. 

Paul Sinning is the Executive Director of HCSS. After graduating from the Dutch police academy in 1985, he started his career in the police force in Amsterdam. As a police officer he was responsible for several criminal investigation units. He later studied management and organization (University of Tilburg, 1995) and became a management consultant (1997) and managing partner (2002) at Twynstra Gudde, a Dutch management and consultancy firm. As managing partner he was responsible for building and developing the Security Group, specialized in organizational, business and change management within the field of security. He focused mainly on strategy, organizational development and complex collaboration issues between organizations responsible for security. He later studied public management at the University of Tilburg (2005) and has written several books about security. He has been closely involved in The Hague Security Delta from the start.

Michel Rademaker is the deputy Director of HCSS. He has fifteen years of hands-on experience as an officer in The Royal Netherlands Army, where he held various military operational and staff posts and also served a term in former Yugoslavia. He has a masters degree obtained at the University of Tilburg. After leaving the armed forces, Mr. Rademaker went on to work at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) as a project and program manager and senior policy advisor on security topics for ten years. Eg. as NATO RTO project leader, he and his team developed serious gaming assessment methods and conducted several assessments of security technologies, and worked on numerous strategic security topics.

At HCSS he is responsible for product and project development. He is particularly interested in setting up multi-stakeholder projects, both with a combined qualitative as well as quantitative focus, on new and upcoming strategic security and geo-economic themes like cyber and raw materials etc. He is one of the co-founders of HCSS.

Michel Rademaker was also an initiator of The Hague Security Delta, the biggest security cluster in Europe, and continues to lead projects for this cluster. Recently he supported the establishment of the Hyderabad Security Cluster in India. His fields of expertise include security strategy, policy, concepts and doctrines, technology assessments, geopolitical and economic security implications of climate change, raw materials and energy supply and serious gaming techniques.

Michel has written several book chapters, and numerous research reports and articles. He frequently acts as moderator in workshops, as a trainer, as guest lecturer at various universities and speaker at conferences, and as a commentator in news media.

Frank Bekkers (1960) holds a Master in Mathematics from the University of Amsterdam. He has spent most of his career as a security and defence strategy analyst, often in combination with managerial responsibilities. His field of expertise include all aspects of the comprehensive security domain. He has substantial experience in innovation strategy and management, both hands-on and in terms of policy advice. In addition, he has done research and consultancy in other domains, such as industry policy and health care. His present position is programme director at HCSS. Mr Bekkers is one of the founding fathers.

Frank Bekkers is the author and co-author of over 50 reports and publications since 2010.

Dr. Tim Sweijs is the Director of Research at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. He is the initiator, creator and author of numerous studies, methodologies, and tools for research projects in horizon scanning, conflict analysis, international and national security risk assessment, and strategy and capability development. His main research interest concerns the changing character of modern day conflict. He has led multicenter research projects for both private and public sector organisations. Tim is also an Affiliate at the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgiatech. 

Tim spearheads the HCSS StratMon program which offers strategic assessments of medium to long term risks in the global security environment to the Strategic Monitor of the Dutch Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs. He is the architect of the HCSS Political Violence Monitor, a web-based interactive mapping platform of global state vulnerability to intrastate conflict. Tim has lectured at universities and military academies around the world. Prior to HCSS, he was a researcher at TNO Defense and Security in The Hague and at the research staff of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels. He studied in London, Amsterdam and Hong Kong and holds degrees in War Studies (PhD, MA), International Relations (Msc.), and Philosophy (BA). Tim is married and has three children.

Having served a fourth term as a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the leading conservative liberal VVD political party, Han ten Broeke held post as the senior member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and acted as Chair of the Armed Services Committee. Furthermore, he led the Dutch delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Prior to which, he was the VVD’s ranking member on Defence and EU affairs.

Before embarking on a career in politics and following his employment as Director of Public Affairs at KPN telecommunications, he ventured to a subsidiary of KPN in Brussels. Ten Broeke then became owner and director of Quinten Consulting BVBA (Ltd). Involved in rebranding KPN-orange to BASE mobile phone operator, he also carried profit and loss responsibility for a small segment of its market. Having previously set up his own company served as a prerequisite enabling the following move at Director’s level to Weber Shandwick in Brussels. This global company with offices in 81 countries promoting a collaborative culture suited Ten Broeke’s novel, divergent style of creative thinking and his entrepreneurial approach. Rather than public relations, his focus was directed towards public affairs where extra emphasis was afforded by the Brussels office. During this period he gained significant experience at international level.

A staunch advocate of public ideals, he believes in the power of ever-present potential as an
indispensible instrument towards a better, more sustainable future. Clear, unambiguous use of language in both his native Dutch and fluent English has furnished him with persuasive, emotive deliveries before both the media and audiences of varying cultures, and from all walks of life. Han ten Broeke holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Leiden University, the Netherlands.

Stephan De Spiegeleire is senior scientist at HCSS. He has Master’s degrees from the Graduate Institute in Geneva and Columbia University in New York, as well as a C.Phil. degree in Political Science from UCLA. He worked for the RAND Corporation for nearly ten years, interrupted by stints at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik and the WEU’s Institute for Security Studies. Mr. De Spiegeleire started out as a Soviet specialist, but has since branched out into several fields of international security and defense policy. His current work at HCSS focuses on strategic defense management, security resilience, network-centrism, capabilities-based planning, and the transformation of defense planning. He is particularly active in HCSS’s security foresight efforts to inform national and European security policy planning in the broader sense. He also teaches at Webster University in Leiden. Stephan keeps a personal blog, where he records his reflections on his fields of expertise. Please visit: gettingdefenseright.blogspot.com

Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Bolder started his military career after graduating from the Royal Military Academy in Breda as a meteorological officer. In the first years of his career he headed the meteorological departments at Deelen and Volkel Airbase. After graduating at Wageningen University as World Class Meteorologist he served with the staff of the 1st German/Netherlands Corps in Münster, Germany.

In 2000 he became a student of the Staffcollege. After graduating in 2001 he was stationed at policy departments at the Airstaff and Defencestaff. Before and during the Netherlands EU Presidency in 2004 he joined the Presidency Taskforce and was responsible for advices to the Headline Goal Task Force and EU Military Committee. Subsequently he was the European Defence Agency - Netherlands Capabilities PoC for the Defence Staff, The Hague. From 2008 to 2010 he was Chief of Defencestaff representative in the interdepartmental Future Policy Survey team (Verkenningen).

After a six month deployment in 2012 in the West Bank he was stationed at the Airstaff in Breda, responsible for the IMC-policy, Triple-helix policy and Space policy of the RNLAF.

In 2014 he joined the 6 month Senior Course of NATO Defence College, Rome. After graduating he returned to the Airstaff. In 2017 a second 6-month deployment to the West Bank followed, again working for and developing the leadercourse program of the Palestinian Security Services. After returning from this he was stationed again at the Airstaff in the Strategy and Advice branch.

Michel Roelen is a Strategic Analyst at HCSS. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy and has an Executive Master in Security and Defence from the Advance Military Command and Staff Course, both in The Netherlands. Currently he is working towards a Master’s degree in Military History at the University of Amsterdam. As an artillery officer he has held operational leadership positions as Platoon, Company and Battalion Commander, operational positions as battalion and brigade operations officer, and staff officer positions at the Army Staff and the Ministry of Defence. He participated in the European Union Battle Group and the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. He has served in the UN mission in Bosnia and the NATO missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. In his recent position at the Army Staff he was responsible for developing the new readiness and training model for the Royal Netherlands Army. At The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies he focuses on security. 

Bianca Torossian is a Strategic Analyst at HCSS. Her studies at The University of Sydney, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Leiden University (The Hague), earned her a Bachelor degree in political science, political economy and sociology, and a Master degree in political science and international organization. For her Master Thesis, Bianca analyzed how the institutional legitimacy of the European Union was impacted by Brexit, and hopes later to reopen this line of research and explore how the nationalistic tendencies of states effect the social legitimacy of multilateral institutions.

At HCSS, Bianca primarily focusses on security and diplomacy. A specific area of interest is the field of technology and AI in defense contexts, which ties into a HCSS research project that critically analyzes the challenges and opportunities posed by robotic and autonomous systems in the military. She contributes to a range projects commissioned by the Dutch Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence.

Arlinda Rrustemi is a researcher and lecturer on peace and conflict studies. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Leiden University in the Netherlands. In 2016, Arlinda defended her doctoral thesis, entitled "State-Building through Life Stories: Incorporating Local Perspectives”, which was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). She holds a B.A. (cum laude) from the University College Roosevelt and an LL.M. degree in Public International Law from Utrecht University. She teaches on humanitarian intervention, peacebuilding, power instruments and multilateral organizations, and is involved in several research projects uncovering peace infrastructures and countering radicalization. She has also received several fellowships and grants, such as Erasmus +, LEICEU, Archimedes and LUF. She was also a visiting scholar at several universities, including the Central European University, University of Leuven, Free University in Brussels, Cegesoma, University of Tallinn and New York University.

Dr. Rrustemi has also published several articles for various journals and media outlets. She has previously worked as a lecturer and researcher at Leiden University and was a research assistant to Prof. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. She also interned at several NGOs (such as YIHR, KAS and PYC), international courts (such as the ICTY and the ICC) and at various Ministries in the Republic of Kosovo. Her research interests are in state-, nation- and peace-building, transitional justice, humanitarian intervention, life stories methodologies and terrorism.

Louk Faesen is Strategic Analyst at the Cyber Policy and Resilience Program of the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. He mainly focuses on international peace and security in cyberspace, norms of responsible state and non-state behavior, and confidence-building measures (CBMs) in cyberspace. Louk functions as the Project Manager of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC), a multi-stakeholder initiative launched at the 2017 Munich Security Conference by the Foreign minister of the Netherlands that brings together leading experts from all major cyber powers and regions to help develop norm and policy initiatives related to international peace and security in cyberspace.

Louk worked previously as a Policy Officer at the Task Force International Cyber Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, where he assisted in the substantive preparations of the Global Conference on CyberSpace 2015 (GCCS) and the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) in The Hague and subsequent projects related to international peace and security, such as the application of international law to cyberspace, confidence building mechanisms (CBMs), and norms of responsible state behavior.

Louk holds a Master’s degree in Law and Politics of International Security (LLM) from the VU University of Amsterdam. During his studies, he conducted research on the Chinese claims in the South China Sea, and worked at a Dutch maritime security company that provides security solutions in the High Risk Area of the Indian Ocean.

Hannes Rõõs is a data scientist at HCSS. He has a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Tartu and also holds Bachelor’s degrees in both Political Science and Sociology from the same university. In addition, he studied at the University of Oslo and the University of Mannheim for a total of three semesters. Prior to HCSS, Hannes worked as a research and teaching assistant at the University of Tartu and the associated Centre of Excellence for Strategic Sustainability. 

At HCSS, Hannes is primarily involved in quantitative data analysis, contributing to all related activities – data gathering, tidying, storing, transformation, modeling, visualization, and communicating the results of the analyses. Mr. Rõõs also assists in the building of interactive web solutions. His substantive research questions include assessing the risks of future conflict and instability using a data-driven approach.

Dr. Willem Theo Oosterveld is a non-resident senior fellow at HCSS. His areas of expertise include the politics of the Middle East, conflict analysis and peacebuilding, as well as law and development. He holds degrees in political science, international law, and history, having studied in Amsterdam, Leiden, Paris and New York, and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. A former Fulbright scholar, he earned a PhD from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Willem has experience in academia, government, journalism and business. From 2013-2018, he was a strategic analyst at HCSS, where he directed and contributed to a host of projects, including on the rise and fall of ISIS, trends in development aid, geopolitical foresight as well as the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Middle East and the Caribbean. Before joining HCSS, he worked for an economic intelligence company in Johannesburg, Jakarta and Casablanca. In Geneva, he worked for the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and with the Dutch Mission to the UN. In New York, he interned with the Security Council Secretariat at UN headquarters. 

Over the years, he has contributed to various international media outlets, including The Economist and the Financial Times. He also published a monograph, The Law of Nations in Early American Foreign Policy (Boston: Brill, 2015). Willem speaks English, French, Dutch and German fluently. He also has knowledge of Spanish and Italian, and is working on Arabic.

Chris Painter is a globally recognized leader and expert on cybersecurity and cyber policy, Cyber Diplomacy and combatting cybercrime. He has been on the vanguard of U.S. and international cyber issues for over twenty five years—first as a prosecutor of some of the most high-profile cybercrime cases in the country and then as a senior official at the Department of Justice, FBI, the National Security Council and finally the State Department. He has initiated, helped drive, or advised on virtually every major U.S. cyber policy for over a decade and has created innovative new organizations and approaches to deal with threats and take advantage of opportunities in cyberspace.

In his most recent government role as the nation’s top cyber diplomat, Mr. Painter coordinated and led the United States’ diplomatic efforts to advance an open, interoperable, secure and reliable Internet and information infrastructure and advised the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of State on these emerging issues.  The pioneering office that Mr. Painter established — the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues — was the first high-level position and office dedicated to advancing the diplomatic aspects of cyber issues ranging from national security to human rights matters. These issues include promoting norms of responsible state behavior and cyber stability, preventing cyber conflict, enhancing deterrence, advancing cybersecurity, fighting cybercrime, promoting multi-stakeholder Internet governance and advancing Internet freedom.

Among many other things, Mr. Painter was instrumental in negotiating a landmark agreement regarding the theft of intellectual property with China, negotiating a comprehensive cyber cooperation agreement with India, using diplomatic and other tools to combat high-profile cyber attacks and intrusions, and launching first of their kind “whole of government” cyber dialogues and capacity building programs with dozens of countries in Europe, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.  He and his team also spearheaded the promotion of an international framework of cyber stability that includes building a consensus around norms of acceptable behavior and getting agreement on transparency and confidence-building measures designed to reduce the risk of miscalculation that could inadvertently lead to conflict in cyberspace.

Prior to joining the State Department, Mr. Painter served in the White House as Senior Director for Cyber Policy and Acting Cyber Coordinator in the National Security Council. He was a senior member of the team that conducted the President’s Cyberspace Policy Review in 2009 and he subsequently helped create and then structure a new directorate in the National Security Council devoted to these issues.

Mr. Painter has been a frequent media spokesperson and presenter on cyber issues around the globe.  He was named the Bartels World Affairs Fellow by Cornell University for 2017-2018 and chosen as a member of the Board of the Center for Internet Security.  He is the recipient of the prestigious RSA Award for Excellence in the Field of Public Policy (2016), the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Intelligence Community Legal Award (2008) and has been named to the “Federal 100” list, among other honors.  He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Cornell University and clerked for US Circuit Judge Betty Fletcher. Currently Mr Painter serves as a Commissioner in the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.