WIIS Netherlands Advisory Board

Simone Smit is currently Deputy Director General of the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service [AIVD].  Simone is an intelligence and security expert and served in various management positions for the Dutch Police Force for almost twenty years.  Her previous roles include Director for Counter-Terrorism in the Ministry of Justice and Security (2017-2021) and Head of the Surveillance and Protection Unit (2014 – 2017). Simone has a Master of Public Administration from Erasmus University and studied Tactical Management at the Dutch Police Academy.

Ella van den Heuvel is a military gender expert in the Dutch Armed Forces with whom she has served
since 1998. In her work she focuses on the implementation of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace &
Security. Ella has been deployed as a military gender advisor for NATO in Afghanistan in 2009 and
in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 2017 and 2019. She has also worked as
a part-time gender adviser for NATO to the Jordanian Armed Forces (2018-2020). She currently is
the gender adviser of the Dutch Chief of Defence.

Willemijn Aerdts LL.M. MA is an intelligence specialist at Leiden University. She is a member of the Advisory Council on International Affairs ( Adviesraad Internationale Vraagstukken ) and a former researcher at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is the owner of the security consultancy Bureau Aerdts and a frequent media commentator on Dutch intelligence matters.

Professor Alanna O'Malley is Chair of United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice at Leiden University. She has a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence and her first book, The Diplomacy of Decolonisation, America, Britain and the United Nations during the Congo crisis 1960- 64 was published in 2018. In 2019 she was awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council for her new project, 'Challenging the Liberal World order from Within, The Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South' (INVISIHIST).

Karlijn Jans is the defence policy advisor at the British Embassy in The Hague. She holds a Master’s degree in European Studies from King’s College London and a Master’s degree in European and International Law from Maastricht University. Ms. Jans further specialized in defence matters while studying at the Netherlands Defence Academy. She has advised military representatives and NATO commanders on several occasions. Prior to her position at the British Embassy Ms. Jans was strategic analyst at the The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). Her areas of expertise include NATO, Dutch and European security and defence policies, strategic foresight and the impact of new technologies on defence policy and military affairs. In 2017-2018 she was a member of the youth-think tank The West Wing of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, advising the department on European defence cooperation. From 2013 to 2016 she worked as a policy advisor at the TNO’s EU office in Brussels. Ms. Jans presided over the Jonge Atlantici, the Dutch chapter of the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association from 2015-2017. Over the past few years, she spoke frequently at NATO and international think tank conferences and published widely on transatlantic security issues, NATO, and European defence policies in the media.

Mrs. Mekka Abdelgabar is the eminently designated expert when it comes to gender issues in Sudan and in Darfur specifically. She is the founder of the Darfur Women's Organization in The Netherlands (VOND). VOND is one of the pioneering signatories of the Dutch National Action Plans (NAP). VOND empowers women leaders and young people through different projects.

The working fields which she focuses on are development, peacebuilding and conflict- resolution and mediation. Mekka addresses conflict issues in her belief that women in conflict are the main affected party and therefore have the ability to bring peace. She has successfully set up the first unique women mediation committee in Sudan and contributed to reconciliation of different ongoing conflicts in Darfur. By bringing women to the forefront of decision-making and peacebuilding she has proven that women are indispensable when it comes to peace.

Sahar Ghanem is the Yemeni ambassador to the Netherlands alongside the non-resident ambassador to Norway and Sweden. She is also the Permanent Representative of Yemen to the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and Yemen’s Governor to the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC).  Ambassador Sahar Ghanem is known for being a political activist and feminist and she has actively participated in various programs, seminars, interviews and conferences nationally and internationally, including a 3-year Dutch program “Female leaders from the MENA Region”.

Isabelle Duyvesteyn is Professor of International Studies/Global History at the Institute of History at Leiden University. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Netherlands Defence Academy. She completed her PhD at the Department of War Studies at King’s College in London. Previously she has worked at the Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’, the Royal Military Academy in the Netherlands and the Department of History of International Relations at Utrecht University. She is an Aspasia and VIDI laureate. She is a former member of the National Advisory Council for International Affairs (AIV), which advises the government on issues of peace and security (2008-2020). From 2012 to 2017 she held the Special Chair in Strategic Studies at the Political Science Institute of Leiden University. She is a member of several publisher, book series and journal editorial boards.

On 1 June 2020, Monica den Boer started as full Professor of Military Policing Operations at the Netherlands Defence Academy. Prior to that, she held a Parliamentary seat for the social-liberal party D66, with portfolio’s in Justice and Security as well as in Interior Affairs. Other positions include Director of Research and Knowledge Development at the Police Academy in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands (2003-2016), in combination with a Chair of Comparative Public Administration, in particular the international police function, at the VU University Amsterdam. Her academic career started with a PhD in 1990 from the European University Institute (EUI, Florence), after which she successively held research and teaching positions at Edinburgh University, the Netherlands Study Centre for Crime and Law Enforcement, the European Institute of Public Administration, Tilburg University, and the European Institute of Law Enforcement Co-operation.

Meanwhile, she occupied several co-positions, including the vice-chairmanship of the Clingendael Institute of International Affairs (2006-2009), as well as membership of the Dutch Iraq Investigation Committee (2009-2010), of the Defence Future Survey Group (2009-2010), and of the Committee on European Integration of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (2002-2016). She worked as Director of SeQure Research and Consultancy (2015-2017) and as Visiting Professor at the Department of Security &; Criminology at Macquarie University, Sydney.

She has published widely on European home affairs and police co-operation and has strongly engaged in research, teaching, coaching as well as supervision. One of her most recent publications includes an edited collection, entitled “Comparative Policing from a Legal Perspective”, published by Edward Elgar.

Angelien Eijsink is an anthropologist, educator and politician.  She served as Member of Parliament representing the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) from 2003 until March 2017. Her focus as a member of parliament was defence and security and in the course of her career she has played a significant role in parliamentary decision-making on these issues.  As party spokesperson for Defence, she was responsible for the evaluation of peacekeeping missions, the Common European Security and Defence Policy, and Dutch Defence procurement. From 2012 to 2017 Angelien was Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and in 2014 was elected Vice-President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Committed to gender equality, Angelien was instrumental in initiating a special bi-annual session of the Assembly devoted to the role of women in the armed forces. She also initiated the Dutch Veterans Law, which was ratified in 2012. She has been a member of the European Leadership Network in London since July 2020.