Redefining defence in an age of disruption: is Europe up to the challenge?

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is a Dutch politician who notably served as the 11th Secretary-General of NATO. He also previously worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch delegation of the NATO headquarters in Brussels. He now works as President of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) of the Netherlands, an independent body which advises government and parliament on foreign policy. Furthermore, he was appointed to the Pieter Kooijmans Chair for Peace, Law and Security at Leiden University.

Pedro Duque is an aeronautical engineer and the first Spanish citizen to go into space. Duque began his career at Grupo Mecánica del Vuelo (GMV), a Spanish firm that provides services for the space industry, and later worked at the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, before being selected to join the ESA astronaut corps. He was also CEO of Deimos Imaging, a private company that runs a commercial Earth observation system with its own satellite and ground stations. Prior to his current position, he served as head of the ESA’s flight operations office.

Elena Gómez de Castro is a prominent expert in foreign affairs and security and defence issues, having assumed a variety of roles in the European Union and at national level. She is in charge of the planning and development of the Defence Policy, NATO, EU, UN and OSCE matters, coordinates crisis situations with civil departments, and controls the actions of the Defence Diplomacy Plan. She previously served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Spain in the North Atlantic Council, Counsellor in the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU, National Expert on Defence Issues at the Council of the EU, and Advisor to the Minister of Defence of Spain. She also served as Deputy Director-General of Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Tanya Harrison is a Planetary Scientist, with expertise in Martian geomorphology and terrestrial analogues, spectroscopy and glaciology. She is the founder of Professional Martian LLC, a company focused on science and sci-fi consulting, communications, and outreach. Previously, she was the Director of Research for Arizona State University’s Space Technology and Science (“NewSpace”) Initiative. She was also a Science Team Collaborator on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity and the upcoming Mars 2020 sample caching rover. Harrison has also been active in education and public outreach with organisations such as The Planetary Society, Expanding Your Horizons, Girl Scouts, Norwescon, The Mars Society, and The National Space Society.

Raimundas Karoblis is a Lithuanian politician, diplomat and lawyer with a distinguished career at the national and European level. He has served in various departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as Director of the Foreign Trade Policy Department, Director of the Economic Department, and as a representative to the World Trade Organisation and the European Union. Prior to his current position, Karoblis was Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, where he was responsible for EU affairs, external economic relations and economic diplomacy.

Kadri Kaska is an internationally-renowned expert in international law and cyberspace matters. Prior to her current position at NATO, Kaska served as a cybersecurity policy and legal researcher focusing on national cybersecurity strategy and governance. Given her legal background, she also writes on the legal aspects of state cyber activities and has published, inter alia, analyses of Russian and Chinese activities in cyberspace. Kaska was the lead author and editor of annual Estonian Cyber Security Assessments and contributed to the Agency’s activities in cyber threat assessment, policy analysis and legal drafting. She was also one of the authors of Estonia’s Cybersecurity Act and the 2018 national cybersecurity strategy.

Nathalie Loiseau has over twenty years of experience in politics and diplomacy. She began her career as a diplomat with the French Ministry of Foreign affairs. Following this, she was Dean of the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA) and then served as the Minister for European Affairs in France. In the European Parliament, Loiseau is also a member of the committees on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation. She is the author of an essay on women’s rights, “Choisissez Tout” and two comic books, “La Démocratie en BD” and “L’Europe en BD”.

Jüri Luik is an Estonian diplomat with an extensive career in defence and foreign affairs. He has held numerous high-level positions, including as Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of the NATO Accession Negotiation Delegation, Permanent Representative to NATO, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Estonia to Washington, Moscow and Brussels, and Director of the International Centre for Defence and Security. Luik is currently serving as Estonian Minister of Defence for the third time in his career.

Katie Moussouris is a hacker and expert on vulnerability disclosure and bug bounties. She advised the US Department of Defence on the government’s first bug bounty program, called “Hack the Pentagon.” As Senior Security Strategist Lead at Microsoft, she worked on leading initiatives such as Microsoft’s bug bounty programmes and Microsoft Vulnerability Research. She is a visiting scholar with MIT Sloan School, a New America Foundation Fellow, and Harvard Belfer Affiliate. She serves on the CFP review board for RSA, O’Reilly Security Conference, Shakacon, and as an advisor to the Center for Democracy and Technology.

With many years of experience in the space industry, Anna Rathsman has worked as a systems engineer, subsystem engineer, technology development manager, business developer and communications director. She was involved in the building of Sweden’s first scientific satellites as a member of the team that designed and realised the research satellite, Freja. Rathsman also led the work on the first Swedish microsatellite, Astrid-1. She has served on the boards of several Swedish space technology companies and is currently Chair of the European Space Agency (ESA) Council.

Jiří Šedivý has extensive experience in the defence domain, having served as Defence Minister of the Czech Republic, Deputy Defence Minister, NATO Assistant Secretary-General for Defence Policy and Planning and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to NATO. He also was Deputy Minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic. Prior to his current position, Šedivý was appointed by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs as special representative for resilience and new threats. As an expert, he played an important role in the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO.

A lawyer by training, Despina Spanou has spent most of her career at the European Commission, where she has covered different portfolios, spanning consumers’ rights, competition law, health, digital and cyber-security. In her current position, together with European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas, she proposed the creation of a European Health Union to jointly respond to current and future health crises and strengthen Europe’s crisis management against cross-border health threats.

Graham Turnock has extensive experience in science and policy at the national and European level. He guided the UK Space Agency throughout its recent expansion, playing a key role in the development of the UK launch, GNSS and National Space Innovation Programmes. Turnock has also been a strong proponent of space coordination at the public level, leading to the recent creation of the National Space Council and commitment to a National Space Strategy. He previously held a number of different government capacities, including leading the Better Regulation Executive, where he was the leader of the Transport Spending Team.

Jody Williams was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize together with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) for her efforts to ban the use and deployment of antipersonnel landmines and destroy existing ones. After receiving the award, she led the United Nations High-Level Mission to investigate human rights abuses in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, joined the faculty of the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work as Professor of Peace and Social Justice, and authored several books. Williams is now part of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, advocating for an international treaty forbidding machines that can target and kill human beings without requiring a person to pull the trigger.

General Tod Wolters has been assigned to numerous operational command and staff positions and has completed nine overseas tours, including two tours in Afghanistan. He commanded the 19th Fighter Squadron, the 1st Operations Group, the 485th Air Expeditionary Wing, the 47th Flying Training Wing, the 325th Fighter Wing, the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force-Afghanistan, and the 12th Air Force. General Wolters previously served as Commander Allied Air Command, Commander of US Air Forces in Europe, Commander of US Air Forces Africa and Director of Joint Air Power Competence Centre in Kalkar, Germany.