Dr. Tim Benbow is a Senior Lecturer in Defence Studies at King’s College London, at the Joint Services Command and Staff College of the UK Defence Academy. He took a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Brasenose College, Oxford, and then a M.Phil. and a D.Phil. in International Relations at St Antony’s College. He also studied at Harvard, as a John F. Kennedy memorial scholar, and at King’s College London. After being awarded his doctorate he stayed at Oxford to conduct a post-doctoral research project on the ‘revolution in military affairs’, while teaching international relations and strategic studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He taught at Britannia Royal Naval College from 2002 to 2004, when he joined the Defence Studies Department. He is Director of the Strategy and Defence Policy Research Centre, Deputy Director of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies, and Maritime Historian on the Higher Command and Staff Course. His main research areas include naval strategy and history, and the changing nature of warfare. For a list of publications, see:

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/tim.benbow.html

Nick Childs joined the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) on 1st June 2015 as Senior Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security, responsible for the Institute’s analysis in these areas, and for the data on sea power capabilities published in the flagship annual Military Balance. It is also his job to formulate and deliver research projects in these areas, and he contributes in his areas of expertise to other Institute publications and activities, including conferences. It is also his role to strengthen the Institute’s engagement with global naval and maritime stakeholders in government, the military, industry, and the academic community. Before joining the Institute, Nick Childs was a BBC journalist for more than 30 years, specialising in covering defence, security and international affairs. His last appointment was as a BBC World Affairs Correspondent. He was also the BBC’s first Pentagon Correspondent. Other main assignments included Defence & Security Correspondent and Political Correspondent. He reported on most recent conflicts and crises in the Middle East, as well as those in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and elsewhere. He has written two recent acclaimed books on the modern Royal Navy, as well as numerous articles for various defence think tanks, journals and magazines, and has presented papers and moderated sessions at various security conferences in the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe and North America. He read Modern History and Economics at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.

Professor Paul Cornish is Research Group Director for Defence, Security and Infrastructure at RAND Europe. He is a co-director of the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre at the Martin School, Oxford University, a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Cybersecurity, and participant in the UK-China Track 1.5 Cyber Dialogue. His other research interests include national strategy and the ethics of the use of armed force.

Belgian Navy Commander Kurt Engelen holds a Masters in Applied Linguistics from the Higher Institute Francisco Ferrer in Brussels, a General Management Certificate from Cambridge University Judge Business School and a Masters in International Politics from the Centre for European Strategic Research Studies in Brussels. He is a Staff Officer at the Belgian Permanent Representation to the Military Committee of NATO, where he is responsible for Cooperation and Regional Security and Crisis Management Exercises. On the academic side, he is a lecturer in International Politics at the Riga Graduate School of Law in Latvia and at the Royal Military Academy in Belgium. He is also regularly invited as a guest lecturer in various universities across Europe. His research is oriented towards Security and Defence related matters and his fields of expertise include the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU, NATO affairs, and neighbourhood and partnership policies of both organizations as well as the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation. Finally, he is also the Vice President of the Euro Atlantic Association of Belgium, the Belgian chapter of the Atlantic Treaty Association.

Joachim Krause is Professor for International Relations at the University of Kiel (Germany), a position he has held since 2001. He is also director of the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel (ISPK), the chairman of the German Council on Foreign Relations’ scientific council, and a member of the executive board at Aspen Institute Germany. Prof. Krause previously held positions at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik, and the Bologna Center of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University. He is the editor of the forthcoming volume “Handbook Naval Strategy and Security” (Routledge, 2016).

Professor Dr. Julian Lindley-French is a leading strategic analyst, author, advisor and commentator who has been appointed to three professorial chairs, has eight books to his name and has written many major articles and reports. Lindley-French is currently Senior Fellow at the Institute of Statecraft in London, Director of Europa Analytica in the Netherlands, Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, as well as a Fellow of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. He is Visiting Programme Director at Wilton Park and Honorary Fellow of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter, as well as a Member of the Strategic Advisory Panel of the UK Chief of Defence Staff. His blog, Lindley-French’s Blog Blast (www.lindleyfrench.blogspot.com), has a world-wide readership. In 2008 he published a book entitled A Chronology of European Security and Defence for Oxford University Press. His massive work The Oxford Handbook of War (Oxford University Press) is regarded as a definitive compendium on the subject the paperback version of which was published in March 2014. In 2015 he published “Little Britain? Twenty- First Century Strategic Challenges for a Middling European Power” which considers the strategy and policy options faced by Britain and its armed forces in the early twenty-first century and “NATO: The Enduring Alliance for Routledge”.

LtCdr Stefan Lundqvist is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Åbo Akademi University, Finland, studying the post-Cold War Maritime Security changes among Western states. He is a teacher of Joint and Naval Operations at the Swedish Defence University, specialised in Operations Assessment. He joined the Royal Swedish Navy in 1987 and has served in various staff positions since 1998. His latest publications are “Why teaching comprehensive operations planning requires transformational learning” (2015), Defence Studies, 15(2): 175–201; “Cultivating Regional Maritime Security: Swedish-Finnish Naval Cooperation in the Baltic Sea” (IOS-Press, 2015) (co-authored with J. J. Widen), in Chapsos I. and Kitchen C. (eds.) Strengthening Maritime Security Through Cooperation; “From Protection of Shipping to Protection of Citizens and National Economies: Current Changes in Maritime Security” (2013), Journal of Defence Studies, 7(3): 57–80.

Carlo Masala was born on 27th March 1968 in Cologne, Germany. He studied Political Science, German and Romanic Philology at the Universities of Cologne and Bonn. From 1992 to 1998, Professor Masala was a research associate at the Department of Political Science at the University of Cologne, where he received a doctorates degree, writing a dissertation about the German-Italian relations between 1963 and 1969. 1998 he was appointed to Akademischer Rat for life at the Department of Political Science at University of Cologne. In December 2002, he was granted venia legendi in Political Science. After a substitute professorship in summer semester 2002 at Geschwister-Scholl-Department at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, he changed to NATO Defence College in the beginning of 2004, where he acted as Research Advisor and, from 2006 on, as Deputy Director of the research department. Visiting professorships and research stays led him to the USA (Ann Arbor, Chicago, Washington), to Great Britain (Shrivenham), Slovakia (Matja Belt Universiy), Italy (Rome and Florence) as well as the Eastern Mediterranean University of Cyprus. From June 2014 to July 2015 he has been a Visiting Professor at the Department for National Security studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. In March 2007, he was offered a professorship at Universität der Bundeswehr München and accepted it on 1st June. Since 2009 Prof. Masala has been a member of the scientific advisory council on the security research program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). He has been one of the publishers of Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (ZIB) from 2010 to 2014 together with Prof. Stephan Stetter. He is member of the Editorial board of the Journal for Politics. From November 2011 to July 2014 Prof. Masala has been dean of the faculty for Social Science. Since 2012 he is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the NDC and since 2012 he is Member of the Advisory Board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy (Berlin). His main research focuses on Theories of International Politics, Security Policy, Transatlantic Relations and Maritime issues.

Vice Admiral Bruno Paulmier joined the French Navy in 1977 and specialised in underwater warfare. He served as antisubmarine warfare expert on board the ASW frigate ACONIT (1980), the ASW destroyers TOURVILLE (1982–84) and DE GRASSE (1989–91) and assumed command of the light frigate COMMANDANT BOUAN (1991–93), the frigate VENDEMIAIRE deployed in the South Pacific (1998–99) and the ASW destroyer TOURVILLE (2001–03). He attended the National High Institute for Advanced Technologies and graduated in electronic science and systems design (1984–86), the Naval Command College in Newport, USA (1994–95) and followed the Advanced Military Studies Centre curriculum in Paris. During his career, he had the opportunity to be assigned to various technical, operational and strategic positions. He led the Fleet Operational Analysis cell in Toulon (development of the French sonar systems 1986–89), was assigned to the ASW group headquarters as deputy Chief of Staff for underwater warfare, to the Joint Staff as a member of the National Military Strategy and Studies board (1999–2001), to the Directorate of Navy Personal Resources (2003–05) and headed the Plans and Policy Department within the French Navy Staff (2005–07). Promoted Rear Admiral in 2007, he advised as deputy Secretary General for the Sea (2008–11) the Prime Minister on all policies and matters regarding maritime areas and maritime security affairs. From 2011 to 2013, as President of the Standing Commission for Programs and Trials of the Fleet, he was responding directly to the Chief of the Navy for testing and commissioning the new ships of the French navy. In September 2013, Vice Admiral Paulmier was designated as advisor to the Minister of Defence and was in charge of the coordination of maritime security issues. He has been the deputy commander of the NATO maritime command since September 1st 2014.

Dirk Peters is a Navy Officer with a background in Public International Law. Former assignments included positions as Section Chief for International Law and Incidents at Sea at the German MoD, Navy Staff and as Planning Staff Officer in the Plans & Policy Section of the German MilRep Staff at the NATO HQ in Brussels. Currently he represents the European Defense Agency as a Project Officer in the field of Maritime Capabilities and a focus on Maritime Surveillance and Naval Training.

Nico Vasseur joined the Royal Netherlands Navy as midshipman in 1980. After completing the three-year course at the Naval College in Den Helder, he sailed as Watch Officer, Mine hunting Officer and Executive Officer on several mine counter measure vessels. In 1986, he graduated in underwater acoustics at the Naval College, and immediately embarked on the Mine Warfare Staff Officers’ Course at Eguermin in Ostend. The following year, he was Staff Officer Operations of both, the North and South MCM Flotillas in the Netherlands. In 1989 he followed the Principle Warfare Officer course, specialising in antisubmarine warfare. He served on her for one year, most of that time, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield. In 1991 he took command of a coastal minesweeper. From July 1993 until June 1996 he worked for NATO at the SACLANT Undersea Research Centre in La Spezia as a Programme Officer on ASW and MCM. Before taking command of the MCM vessel HNLMS MIDDELBURG (M858), he was Operations Officer of HNLMS PIETER FLORISZ (F826). At the end of this posting, he enrolled for a year-long Staff Officers’ course at the Netherlands Defence Academy. In June 2001, he was appointed Executive Officer on board HNLMS VAN AMSTEL (F831), and during this time he conducted counterdrug operations in the Caribbean, and participated in Operation Enduring Freedom in the Persian Gulf. Promoted to Commander in July 2002, he took command of the Netherlands Mine Countermeasures Flotilla in Den Helder. In October 2012, Commander Vasseur was appointend Director of EGUERMIN Naval Mine Warfare Centre of Excellence, in Ostend, where he continues to foster international relationships and promote mine awareness amongst the naval and civilian communities.

Nico Vasseur joined the Royal Netherlands Navy as midshipman in 1980. After completing the three-year course at the Naval College in Den Helder, he sailed as Watch Officer, Mine hunting Officer and Executive Officer on several mine counter measure vessels. In 1986, he graduated in underwater acoustics at the Naval College, and immediately embarked on the Mine Warfare Staff Officers’ Course at Eguermin in Ostend. The following year, he was Staff Officer Operations of both, the North and South MCM Flotillas in the Netherlands. In 1989 he followed the Principle Warfare Officer course, specialising in antisubmarine warfare. He served on her for one year, most of that time, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield. In 1991 he took command of a coastal minesweeper. From July 1993 until June 1996 he worked for NATO at the SACLANT Undersea Research Centre in La Spezia as a Programme Officer on ASW and MCM. Before taking command of the MCM vessel HNLMS MIDDELBURG (M858), he was Operations Officer of HNLMS PIETER FLORISZ (F826). At the end of this posting, he enrolled for a year-long Staff Officers’ course at the Netherlands Defence Academy. In June 2001, he was appointed Executive Officer on board HNLMS VAN AMSTEL (F831), and during this time he conducted counterdrug operations in the Caribbean, and participated in Operation Enduring Freedom in the Persian Gulf. Promoted to Commander in July 2002, he took command of the Netherlands Mine Countermeasures Flotilla in Den Helder. In October 2012, Commander Vasseur was appointend Director of EGUERMIN Naval Mine Warfare Centre of Excellence, in Ostend, where he continues to foster international relationships and promote mine awareness amongst the naval and civilian communities.