William ‘Bill’ Combes, is a retired Captain in the US Navy and a lecturer at the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia. Before moving to Estonia, Bill completed a 27-year career in the US Navy as submariner and strategist. In addition to commanding a ballistic missile submarine, serving as Chief of Staff of a carrier strike group deployed to the Persian Gulf and his last position as the branch head for US Navy strategy in the Pentagon, he was the US Navy’s Fellow to Oxford University and the Changing Character of War Programme. The Baltic Defence College provided support for his research through their fellowship programme, offered twice a year.
Brendan Flynn is a Lecturer with the School of Political Science & Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He has studied at the University of Essex for his Masters and PhD degrees, his doctoral thesis having the title: ‘Subsidiarity and the Evolution of EU environmental policy’, with Prof. Albert Weale as his supervisor. He has taught a wide variety of undergraduate courses on topics in the areas of Irish politics, introduction to politics, and European politics. He has also offered specialist third option courses in environmental policy and EU policy. His primary research interests include comparative environmental policy, with a special focus on EU and Irish developments. He also retains an interest in wider EU policy and European politics developments. He is the author of The Blame Game: Rethinking Ireland’s Sustainable Development and Environmental Performance (2007, Dublin: Irish Academic Press).
Basil Germond is Director of Research Training for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University. He has published two monographs and in excess of 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on sea power, naval and maritime affairs, as well as ocean governance and maritime security. He has developed cross-disciplinary research within social sciences (e.g. linguistics, human geography) and beyond (e.g. marine sciences). Basil is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS).
Niklas Granholm is Deputy Director of studies at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI, currently placed at the agency’s department for security policy. He has been seconded to the Swedish Foreign and Defence Ministries, where he worked with European defence and security related issues. Fields of analysis and studies relate to naval and maritime strategy, geostrategic change in the Arctic, Nordic, transatlantic and European security and defence policy, nuclear strategic development and peace support/crisis management operations. He is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Society for Naval Sciences (KÖMS), the Royal Swedish Academy of War Studies (KkrVA) and an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.
Ciarán Lowe has recently completed a PhD in the Department of History at Maynooth University. His thesis focused on ‘The relevance of size. A comparison of small European navies in the post-Cold War period, 1990–2017’ and was defended successfully in early 2019. His research concentrated on the idea of small navies, with major case studies into the navies of Ireland and Malta and minor case studies of the Dutch, Norwegian and Croatian navies. In addition to completing his thesis, Ciarán also taught on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules for Maynooth University with the Irish Defence Forces.
Andrew Mallia is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Armed Forces of Malta. After graduating from his initial training at the German Naval Academy in Muerwik, he also graduated from the US Naval War College in Newport with a Diploma in Command and Staff and Joint Professional Military Education Level 1 (JPME 1) and holds an Advanced Diploma in Public International Maritime Law from the IMO International Maritime Law Institute in Malta. He is a two-time graduate of the USCG SAR School in Yorktown, Virginia and is currently reading for an MA in Maritime Security with Coventry University in the UK. He now works as a freelance maritime security consultant. Among his current activities, he has been engaged by the International Maritime Organization and UN Office on Drugs and Crime to deliver training and assessment activities related to maritime security and maritime domain awareness in various countries.
Robert McCabe is Assistant Professor and Course Director for the MA in Maritime Security at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. Previously he has worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University on the British Academy Sustainable Development Programme funded project SafeSeas. He holds a PhD in International Security and an MA in Military History and Strategic Studies from Maynooth University. He is the author of Modern Maritime Piracy: Genesis, Evolution and Responses published with Routledge in 2018 and several articles addressing maritime security, development and governance topics.
Anselm van der Peet is a senior historian at the Netherlands Institute of Military History (NIMH) of the Dutch Ministry of Defence. He studied history at the University of Utrecht and has written numerous articles and other scholarly works on the Royal Netherlands Navy in the twentieth century, in particular on gunboat diplomacy, Second World War naval operations, Cold War maritime strategy and worldwide group deployments as well as enforcement missions. In 2016 he completed a PhD at the University of Utrecht on Dutch participation in multinational maritime out-of-area operations after 1945. He is a member of the editorial board of the magazines Marineblad (Dutch Naval Officers Society) and Atlantisch Perspectief (transatlantic relations and peace and security).
Johannes Riber is a naval analyst and Deputy Director at the Institute for Strategy at Denmark’s Royal Defence College. Before that, he was a military analyst at the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS) for two years. He holds an MA in International Security Studies from the University of Leicester and has broad operational experience including one year with NATO’s standing naval forces with the Danish Defence Forces.
Deborah Sanders is a Reader in Defence and Security Studies in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London where she specialises in security in the Black Sea and small navies. She is also a member of the Corbett Centre for maritime strategy. Her publications include: Maritime Power in the Black Sea (Ashgate, 2014); Small Navies: Strategy and Policy for Small Navies in War and Peace (Routledge, 2014. editor); and she has published numerous articles on small navies including the Romania, Bulgarian and Russian Black Sea Fleet. Her most recent articles include: ‘Rebuilding the Ukrainian Navy’, US Naval War College Review; and ‘Maritime Security in the Black Sea: out with the new in with the old’, Mediterranean Quarterly.
Ian Speller is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Director of the Centre for Military History and Strategic Studies at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Prior to that he was a Senior Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London and the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College. He has published widely in the fields of maritime strategy and naval history. Recent publications include: Understanding Naval Warfare 2nd edn (Routledge, 2018); Understanding Modern Warfare 2nd edn (Cambridge University Press, 2016. co-author); and Small Navies: Strategy and Policy for Small Navies in War and Peace (Routledge, 2014. editor).
Jeremy Stöhs is an Austrian-American defence analyst at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK) and its adjunct Center for Maritime Strategy & Security. He is also a non-resident fellow of the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda & Security Studies (ACIPSS). His current research and teaching focuses on transatlantic relations, maritime security and European naval power. He has written various articles and chapters on the matter and is the author of the book: The Decline of European Naval Forces: Challenges to Sea Power in an Age of Fiscal Austerity and Political Uncertainty (Naval Institute Press, 2018).
Tor Ivar Strømmen is a Commander in the Norwegian Navy. He currently serves as head teacher (associate professor) at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy in Bergen, where he teaches strategy, sea power, naval history, military theory and operational planning. He contributes to and leads several research projects. He is also an active contributor to both academic and popular debates about strategy and force development, both nationally and internationally. In 2015, he was one of the main authors and member of the editorial board to the latest iteration of the Norwegian naval doctrine and has previously been part of the editorial board for the Norwegian Naval Staff Handbook.
Geoffrey Till is the former Dean of Academic Studies at the United Kingdom Command and Staff College from 1997–2006, and is now Emeritus Professor of Maritime Studies at King’s College London and Chairman of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies. Since 2009, he has also been a Visiting Professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore. He now holds the Dudley W. Knox Chair in Naval History at the US Naval War College, Newport. In addition to many articles and chapters on various aspects of maritime strategy and policy defence, Geoffrey is the author of a number of books including: Seapower: A Guide for the 21st Century.
Christopher Xuereb is a Lieutenant Colonel and Staff Officer 1 Land Plans and Operations of the Armed Forces of Malta. He has served in a number of key staff and command appointments at Squadron, Regiment and Brigade levels. In addition, Christopher served as Second-in-Command of a Company strength Armed Forces of Malta task group that deployed to Kosovo in 2000. He served as Chief Analyst and Head of Production within the Combined Joint Intelligence (CJ2) Cell at the EUNAVFOR Atalanta Operational Headquarters (OHQ) in Northwood. Subsequently he served as Head of Intelligence Plans at the EUFOR Libya OHQ in Rome. Christopher is a graduate of the Irish Defence Forces Military College Senior Command and Staff Course. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration, an MA in Leadership, Management and Defence Studies and an MA in Humanitarian Action, and is also a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management.