Captain Kurt Engelen

Navy Captain (OF-5) Kurt Engelen is Director of the Centre for Security and Defence Studies (CSDS). His expertise spans Eastern Europe—particularly Russian foreign policy and war doctrine—the Arctic region, EU security and defence policy, EU–NATO relations, and strategic foresight.

A Belgian Navy officer with a combined military, industry and academic background in international politics and conflict studies, Captain Engelen has held a series of senior policy and multilateral-security appointments. He served as staff officer for cooperative security and crisis management at the Belgian Military Representation to NATO (2015–2018), then as Head of the EU Section at the Belgian Defence Staff Strategy Department (2018–2020). From 2020 to 2022, he was the Belgian Delegate to the Council of the EU’s Politico-Military Group. He subsequently served as Defence Counsellor to Belgium’s Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee (2022–2024), while also acting as Deputy Military Representative (2022–2023) and Acting Military Representative to the EU Military Committee (March–June 2023). He represented Belgium in the Steering Committee of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC)  (2022–2024).

Academically, he is a guest lecturer at the West University of Timișoara (Romania) and teaches European affairs and Russian policies at the Belgian Defence College. He is a regular lecturer and   panellist at the ESDC, and a regular guest in Belgian and international radio and TV media.

Besides his military education, Captain Engelen holds Master’s degrees in Applied Linguistics and in International Politics, and a General Management Certificate (Cambridge Judge Business School)