Biography
Navy Captain (OF-5) Kurt Engelen is Director of the Centre for Security and Defence Studies (CSDS). His primary fields of expertise include Eastern Europe – with a focus on Russian foreign policy and war doctrine –, the Arctic region, the EU security and defence policies, EU-NATO relations and strategic foresight analysis.
Kurt Engelen is a Belgian navy officer with a combined military, industry and academic background in international politics and conflict studies. During his latest assignments, he was a staff officer in charge of cooperative security and crisis management at the Belgian military representation to NATO (2015-2018), Head of the European Union section at the Belgian Defence staff strategy department (2018-2020), Belgian Delegate to the Politico-Military Group of the Council of the EU (2020-2022) and, Defence Counsellor to the Ambassador of Belgium to the Political and Security Committee (2022-2024). During his tenure at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU, he held the positions of Deputy Military Representative (2022-2023) and Acting Military Representative to the EU Military Committee (March-June 2023). He has also represented Belgium in the Steering Committee of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC) (2022-2024). Read more
Expertise
Russian foreign policy
Russian war doctrine
Eastern Europe
Arctic region
European affairs and crisis management
NATO-EU relations
EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)
Strategic Foresight Analysis (SFA)
Publications
Kurt Engelen, « Quatre scénarios pour l’Ukraine en 2025 » Focus Paper 49 (Institut royal supérieur de défense), janvier, 2025. https://www.defence-institute.be/publications/focus-paper/fp-49/
Kurt Engelen, « Les projets capacitaires mariti-mes de la coopération structurée permanente répondent-ils aux besoins capacitaires de l’UE et de l’OTAN ? » (prestation d’approfondissement, École royale militaire, 2021), https://www.academia.edu/48907407/Les_proj ets_maritimes_PESCO_r%C3%A9pondent_ils_au x_besoins_de_lUnion_europ%C3%A9enne_et_de _lOTAN.
Kurt Engelen, « L’intégration de la défense européenne, moteur de la solidarité transatlantique, » Revue militaire belge, n° 19 (juin 2020) : 67-74, https://www.defence-institute.be/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rmb-19-art-05.pdf.
Kurt Engelen, “Why Cold War Is Not Such A Bad Idea,” Belgian Military Journal, N° 13 (December 2016) : 113-123, defence-institute.be/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/rmb-13.pdf
Kurt Engelen, “Is Cold War 2.0 Our Best Available Option?” (in-depth research paper, Royal Military Academy, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/24071607 /Is_Cold_War_2.0_Our_Best_Available_Option
Kurt Engelen, “The Reunification of Cyprus and its Influence on NATO–EU Relations” (master thesis, Centre européen de recherches internationales et stratégiques, 2016), https://www.academia.edu/7143257/The_Reu nification_of_Cyprus_and_its_Influence_on_ NATO_EU_Relations