Dorith Kool is a Strategic Analyst at HCSS, where she contributes to projects commissioned by the Dutch Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs. Her primary focus is on fragile states and the role of the security sector in stabilising conflicts. Her work also includes research on the nexus between water, peace and security in Iraq. In her previous work she looked at the politicisation of peace settlements in Syria and the political dimensions of the humanitarian sector. Her main research interests include geopolitics and the security implications of climate change, hybrid warfare, security resilience and migration. She also has experience working as an Arabic translator.

Dorith holds a MSc in Middle Eastern Studies from Leiden University and is currently completing a MSc in Military Strategic Studies at the Netherlands Defence Academy.

Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Bolder started his military career after graduating from the Royal Military Academy in Breda. As a meteorological officer 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.

After graduating Staff College in 2001 he was stationed at policy departments at the Airstaff and Defencestaff. He joined the Presidency Taskforce for the Netherlands EU Presidency in 2004 with responsibilities for 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 CHOD 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 another 6-month deployment to the West Bank followed, again working for and developing the leadercourse program of the Palestinian Security Services. After returning he was stationed again at the Airstaff in the Strategy and Advice branch. He joined the HCSS in January 2019. 

Elisabeth Dick is a Junior Data Scientist at HCSS. She studies International Relations and Economics at the University of Erfurt, Germany and University of Tampere, Finland. During her studies, she has focused on Quantitative Research Methods and Econometrics and uses it to translate qualitative into quantitative research. She works mostly on measuring political, economic and social connections and dependencies in the global context.

Prior to working at HCSS, Elisabeth tutored Statistics and Quantitative Methods of Empirical Research at the University of Erfurt and completed the Data Internship at HCSS.

Dr. Alexander Klimburg is Director of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace Initiative and Secretariat and Director of the Cyber Policy and Resilience Program at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. Dr. Klimburg is an Affiliate at het Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, and an associate fellow at the Austrian Institute of European and Security Policy. He is a former associate and former research fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.

Dr. Klimburg has worked on numerous topics within the wider field of international cybersecurity since 2007. He has acted as an adviser to a number of governments and international organizations on national cybersecurity strategies, international norms of behavior in cyberspace and cyber-conflict (including war, cyber-crime, and cyber-espionage), critical infrastructure protection, and internet governance. He has participated in international and intergovernmental discussions within the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and has been a member of various national, international, NATO, and EU policy and working groups. He has given dozens of invited talks and regularly participates and organizes track 1.5 diplomatic initiatives as well as technical research groups. He is author and editor of numerous books, research papers, and commentaries and has often been featured in the international media, including in Newsweek, Reuters, and others. His most recent book The Darkening Web: The War for Cyberspace was published by Penguin Press.

Previously, Dr. Klimburg worked for eight years in Vienna as senior adviser at the Austrian Institute of International Affairs and has been closely involved in a number of European cybersecurity policy initiatives. Prior to this, Alexander worked on ICT strategy issues in corporate finance and strategy consulting in Europe and Asia.

A graduate (1st class degree) of the School of Oriental and African Studies and the London School of Economics, he obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna. He is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Publications:

The Darkening Web: The War for Cyberspace

Synergies between the civilian and the defence cybersecurity markets
European Commission | June 2016 
Cyber Security Capacity Building: Developing Access
NUPI | September 2015 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg, Hugo Zylberberg
Cyber Attack Information System
Springer | May 2015 | Authors: Thomas Bleier, Helmut Leopold, Florian Skopik, Alexander Klimburg, Philipp Mirtl
Council of Foreign Relations: "Two Years Later, the EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy Stumbles Forward"
Council of Foreign Relation | February 2015 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
America has a much bigger cyber problem on its hands
The National Interest | January 2015 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Building a Pluralist Future for the Internet
Atlantic Council | September 2014 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Shades of Cyber Grey – Espionage and Attack in Cyberspace
The Fletcher Forum | September 2014 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Roots-Unknown: Cyberconflict Past, Present and Future
Sicherheit und Frieden (Security and Peace) | January 2014 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Mapping the Internet Terrain
Research Note for Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania | January 2014 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg, Philipp Mirtl, Snezana Gjorgieva
Mediating Security: Comprehensive Approaches to an Ambigious Subject Festschrift for Otmar Hoell
Peter Lang | October 2013 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg, Jan Pospisil 
Watering the Grass Roots
Multistakeholder Diaologue (MIND) 6th edition | October 2013 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Commentary: The Internet Yalta
Center for a New American Security | February 2013 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
National Cyber Security Framework Manual
NATO CCD-CoE | December 2012 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg, Melissa Hathaway, Jason Healey, Eric Luiijf, Gustav Lindstrom
Gesamstaatliche Ansäzte zur Cybersicherheit : Erfahrungen aus Österreich 
Strategie und Sicherheit 2012 | January 2012 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Building Confidence in Cyberspace
New Europe, Special Edition "Cyber Security" | May 2011 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Lessons from the Comprehensive Approach for Whole of Nation Cybersecurity (Boots, Suits, Sandals and Spooks)
per Concordiam, NATO, Journal of European Security and Defense Issues | 2011 |Authors: Alexander Klimburg
RECIPE: Recommended Elements for Critical Infrastructure Protection in Europe (Contributor)
TNO Den Haag | 2011 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Ruling the Domain: (Self) Regulation and Security of the Internet
ICANN Study Group | 2011 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
The Whole of Nation in Cyberpower
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, special issue: International Engagement on Cyber: Establishing International Norms and Improved Cybersecurity | 2011 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Cyberspace and Cyberpower: Concepts, Capabilities and Conditions for Action within the EU
Study for European Parliament, AFET/SEDE | 2011 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg, Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar
Mobilising Cyber Power
Survival (Volume 53, issue 1), International Institute of Strategic Studies | 2011 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg
Inside Cyber Warfare by Jeff Carr (sub-chapter)
O'Reilly Media | 2010; 2nd edition 2011 | Authors: Alexander Klimburg

Pieter Bindt is a retired Rear Admiral with extensive knowledge of and experience in intelligence and security, international affairs, and Joint and Maritime operations.
After graduating from the Naval College with a specialization in Math and Game Theory (1983), he joined the Submarine Service.

He was teacher of the international Submarine Command Course and commanded a submarine, a frigate, and an amphibious transport ship as well as the integrated, operational, deployable staff, “Netherlands Maritime Force”. In this function he was Deputy Maritime Component Commander of the NATO Response Force (NRF), Commander Amphibious TaskForce of the NRF and Force Commander of the EU Counter Piracy mission, Atalanta.

Amongst his shore staff functions were Naval planner and Deputy Director Operational Policy. In April 2016 he retired as Director of the Netherlands Defence Intelligence and Security Service. In this function he significantly intensified (inter)national cooperation in collection and analyses, lead the development and implementation of new techniques and business practices, and served customers at the cabinet, operational, and tactical levels.

Tom Middendorp is a retired four-star general. He now advises The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) as a principal expert. Until October 2017 he was the Chief of Defense of the Netherlands Armed Forces. In this period he led one of the largest transformations in the history of the armed forces and was involved in over 20 military deployments worldwide.

He conducted a proces of strategic analysis and re-orientation, including several Future Force Conferences where he introduced an ecosystem approach to security and positioned Defense as a platform for innovation. During his tenure, the tide of continuous downsizing and reductions changed and the government decided to increase the defense budget. Mister Middendorp initiated and operationalized several far-reaching military cooperation programs in which the Netherlands became one of the frontrunners in Europe.

He studied civil engineering at the Royal Military Academy in Breda, is a graduate at the Command and General Staff College in the United States and received the high awards in Australia, Germany, France and Belgium. Tom Middendorp is also the Netherlands’ Special Envoy on European Defence Cooperation to the EU.

Lucia van Geuns is an experienced energy professional who held research positions at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP) after a career with Royal Dutch Shell (1980- 2002). She has a background in geoscience, petroleum engineering, economics & planning. Her research focuses on international energy market developments, energy transition issues and climate change policies. In her present role, she is a frequent speaker on (international) energy markets for various public and private stakeholders. Ms. Van Geuns holds a Master’s degree in Earth Sciences from the University of Leiden. She was also president of the Royal Geological and Mining Society of the Netherlands (KNGMG) from 2013-2019.

Jonathan Holslag (1981) works on international politics and Asian affairs. In 2015, Singapore’s Straits Times named him one of Europe’s most influential Asia experts. Jonathan has written over 40 academic papers and several books, translated into many languages. His latest works include: A Political History of the World (Penguin, 2018) and Silk Road Trap (Polity, 2019). He lectures at the Free University Brussels as well as several other universities and defense academies. He was appointed Special Advisor to the first Vice-President of the European Commission, Benelux Director of the Trilateral Commission, and took several other advising positions. Jonathan serves as a reserve officer with the Belgian Armed Forces.

As an air force officer he has an extensive operational background in air & missile defence, serving as battery control officer with Hawk and Patriot systems, commander of 119 Active Air Defence Squadron at Air Base Leeuwarden and commander of the Guided Missile Group at Air Base De Peel.

Peter Wijninga has studied Air Power Strategy at USAF Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, USA. From 1996 till 1999 he served as airpower strategy lecturer at the Netherlands Defence College. From 2001 till 2004, Mr. Wijninga was head of Operational Evaluations at the Defence Staff, Ministry of Defence, in which capacity he was responsible for operational evaluations of Dutch deployments in Bosnia, Macedonia, Eritrea and Iraq.

From 2004 till 2007 Peter Wijninga was back at the Air Staff to head the Policy & Plans branch of the RNLAF. During this tour the defense organisation was extensively reorganised. The Air Staff was converted into a more operations focused Air Force Headquarters, moving from The Hague to Breda, and colonel Wijninga’s branch was reorganised into the Policy Support Staff Group.

In 2008 colonel Wijninga served as Deputy Commander Kandahar Air Field (DCOMKAF) in Afghanistan.  After completing his tour as commander Guided Missile Group, Peter Wijninga was assigned to The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies in April 2012.

Senator van Kappen was born in 1941 in Semarang, the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). He is married and has two sons. In 1964 he graduated from the Naval Academy in Den Helder and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps.

In the course of his career he completed Special Forces (Commando) training with the Green Berets in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and was trained as a Mountain and Arctic Warfare Survival Instructor in Norway. He was also trained as a Naval communications and warfare officer and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I.(USA). During his career he served in numerous operational and staff billets in the Netherlands and abroad. His last posting was as the top Military Adviser to the Secretary General of the U.N. and as the Director of the Military Division in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at U.N. headquarters in New York.

After his return from New York in 1998, he retired from the Marine Corps. To date he works as Senior Concept Developer for NATO/ACT. Mr. Van Kappen is a Senior Policy Advisor for the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific (Defence) Research (TNO) and the The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). He is the chairman of the supervisory board of the Institute for Security, Experimentation and Transformation Institute (ISETI). In 2007 he was elected to take a seat in the Senate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He lectures internationally as an expert on security issues.

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.

Hans van der Louw is a retired Major General with extensive knowledge of and experience in defense and security matters, international affairs and diplomacy, as well as Joint and Army operations. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy in 1981, and served the first 9 years of his career as an Infantry Officer with operational units, including a deployment with UNIFIL, in the Lebanon.

After graduating from the Netherlands Army Staff College, he worked at the Netherlands Army Staff, and in 1995 graduated from the US Army Command and General Staff Officers Course in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. He then commanded 17 Mechanized Infantry Battalion ‘Princess Irene’, including a 6-month deployment with IFOR, NATO’s peace enforcing mission in Bosnia. Following this, he held various positions at the Army Staff and Defense Staff. He also taught at the Netherlands Defense College: Joint and Multinational Operations. After his promotion to Colonel, he was appointed as the Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of 13 Mechanized Brigade, Oirschot, The Netherlands.

From 2005 to 2009, he was the Army Attaché and Assistent Defense Attaché at the Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC. In this period he also followed the Distance Education Program at the US Army War College, obtaining a Master of Strategic Studies. Following his promotion to Brigadier General, he commanded 43 Mechanized Brigade, and then, as a Major General, he served as Chief Military Household (i.e. the Military Advisor) to His Majesty King Willem-Alexander. In this capacity, he was also responsible for all strategic-level security arrangements for the Royal Family and Royal Household.

He also holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from Leiden University.

Erik van der Goot is a former official of the European Commission and Honorary Fellow of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). He is a Mechanical Engineer (HTS Haarlem, the Netherlands) and holds a MSc in Computer Science (Brunel University, London). Most recently, until May 2019, he was a Senior Expert at the Text Mining and Analysis Competence Centre of the JRC in Ispra, Italy, where has helped establish and has been acting Head of Unit of the Text and Data Mining unit.

Before this, Erik led a team of 25 developers and researchers working on open source text information mining and analysis within the context of the Europe Media Monitor (EMM) project. Erik is one of the original developers of EMM and started work on open source monitoring and analysis early in 2002. He has developed many of the EMM components and is responsible for the overall system design. The EMM project also includes the Medical Information System MediSys and various customised installations of the EMM system for Security and Early Warning.

When he joined the JRC in 1994 Erik initially worked in the field of Agrometeorological modelling, re-implementing the Crop Growth Monitoring System (CGMS). Before joining the JRC Erik worked from 1985 for the European Commission at the JET (Joint European Torus) Nuclear Fusion Research project at Culham, UK. There his main contributions were in real-time analysis and visualisation using parallel processing systems. Erik's first job was with the Dutch Energy Research Centre ECN where he started work in 1981. His career spans more than 35 years of software and system design, development and implementation, mostly in a research environment.

Ardi Bouwers is a Sinologist and director of the consultancy China Circle, specialized in intercultural communication and media. She is the author of a book about communication between Chinese and Dutch people Cirkels en rechte lijnen (2016, in Dutch). She teaches on China in the 21st century at Amsterdam University College and on intercultural communication at Xiamen University.

In the early 80s she studied Sinology at Leiden University and Nanjing University. In the past 30 years she has seen China develop from an inward-looking communist country to the world power that it is today. The country has undergone great changes, not only economically and politically, but also socially and culturally. She is especially interested in the position of China in the world and the interaction between China and other international actors, such as the West and the African continent.
Ardi also has in-depth expertise and experience in the field of the international media industry, and particularly on the rise of social media in China.


 

Heiko Borchert directs Borchert Consulting and Research AG, a consulting boutique focusing on strategic affairs. He is Associate Partner of Wise Pens International, a European consultancy specializing on maritime security policy and advice, and member of the board of the Journal for Foreign and Security Policy (Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, ZfAS). Heiko Borchert has worked with different public and private sector clients in Europe on issues like armaments policy, critical infrastructure protection, defense science and technology, energy security, energy infrastructure security, maritime security, scenario-based security policy planning, and organizational reform.

Publications:

Supply chain management and economic statecraft. A five-point agenda, East Asia Forum, 2020 (with Carsten Jäkel),

The European way. How to advance Europe’s strategic autonomy by pairing liquidity with data to make supply chains more transparent, resilient and sustainable, Ernst & Young, 2020

Looking beyond the abyss. Eight scenarios on the post-COVID-19 business landscape, 21strategies, 2020

Jump-starting Europe’s work on military artificial intelligence, Defense News, 2019 (with Christian Brandlhuber)

The Arab Gulf defense pivot. Defense industrial policy in a changing geostrategic context, Comparative Strategy, 2019

Flow control rewrites globalization. Implications for business and investors, HEDGE21, 2019

The Diversity Challenge: Five Perspectives on Eastern Mediterranean Geoeconomics, Kiel International Seapower Symposium | 2018

Intellectual Capital Protection by Patents, The Ultimate but Hidden Base of Europe’s Defense Industrial Competitiveness, European Security & Defence  | February 2018

Sharpening the Falcon’s Claws. United Arab Emirate Strengthens Its Defense, European Security & Defence | February 2017

Waiting for Disruption?! Undersea Autonomy and the Challenging Nature of Naval Innovation, Singapore S. Rajaratnam Schools of International Studies | 2017