Esther Chavannes is a Strategic Analyst at HCSS, primarily focusing on topics where security, politics and law intersect. Most recently she conducted research into the ethical challenges of using Robotic and Autonomous Systems in a military context. Apart from emerging technologies in the Defense sector, she works on security challenges in Southeast Asia, regulatory frameworks of civil technology in the EU, and right-wing political violence in the digital age.

Esther holds a degree in international law, political science and modern history from University College Utrecht and Sciences Po Paris. For her thesis, Esther analyzed the EU’s normative and regulatory power through its trade policy, using the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement as a case study based on her time at the embassy in Hanoi. She is currently in the process of obtaining a Masters degree in Military Strategic Studies at the Netherlands Defense Academy.

Amit Arkhipov-Goyal is a Strategic Analyst at HCSS focusing on research at the intersection of emerging technologies, foreign policy and international security, primarily for the Netherlands Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs. His past work includes studies on the geopolitical implications of adoption of Artificial Intelligence in societies, economies and militaries, as well as the ethical considerations of deploying Robotic and Autonomous Systems within the armed forces.

Prior to HCSS, Amit worked at the Institute for Economics and Peace in The Hague, where he focused on building institutional knowledge of conflict prevention and early warning tools. Amit holds a BSc in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and is currently completing an MSc in Crisis and Security Management at Leiden University.

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

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.

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.

Katarina Kertysova is a strategic analyst at HCSS. She holds a degree in International Relations and French from the University of St Andrews, after which she pursued security studies at Sciences Po Paris and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).  

Prior to joining HCSS, Katarina worked as a researcher at the Clingendael International Energy Programme and later in the private energy sector in Slovakia. Her research experience includes work conducted for the UNDP, the Carnegie Moscow Centre and the GLOBSEC Policy Institute, among others.

Katarina’s areas of interest include energy, crisis prevention and recovery, development and non-traditional security challenges. Geographically, Katarina specializes in Eastern Europe, the post-Soviet space and the Balkans. She speaks Slovak, English, French and Russian.

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.

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.

Erik Frinking is Strategic Advisor Security and Cyber at HCSS. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Leiden University. For almost twenty years, he has been involved in addressing high-level, complex policy issues for a wide variety of European countries and international organizations. Mr. Frinking worked for more than 13 years at the Leiden branch of the RAND Corporation, where he was director of the Education, Science & Technology, and Innovation program. At HCSS, he is responsible for the foresight program, which produces the State of the Future and Future Issues reports on key emerging themes. Combining strong strategic skills with methodological rigor, Mr. Frinking conducts benchmarking, foresight studies, scenario exercises, and risk assessments. His fields of expertise include science and technology, crisis management, CBRN security policies and cyber security. He has played an important role in the development and implementation of the Dutch National Security Strategy (Strategie Nationale Veiligheid).
 

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.

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.

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.

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.