Gerard Lucius joined the Diplomatic
Service of the Netherlands in 1997 and civil-military interaction has been a
constant in his career. He was the Liaison Officer to the Netherlands Ministry
of Defence during various operations in the Former Yugoslavia and a Development
Adviser to the Commander of Task Force Uruzgan, the Dutch contribution to ISAF.
As a consultant to the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) before the
indepence of South Sudan, he coordinated donor support to the Joint Integrated
Units of Sudanese Army and SPLM. He also worked as Political Secretary and
Economic Secretary in Zambia and Qatar, respectively. Since 2002, Gerard spends
a number of weeks annually as an active reserve officer in 1 (NL)
Civil-Military Interaction Command, where he is a Senior Consultant in the
Command’s Political Network. Gerard
was Counselor and Deputy Head of Mission of his country's embassy in Baghdad
from 2012-2014. He currently works on Antiterrorism and National Security
issues at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. Dr. Sebastiaan Rietjens, an engineer by training, is an associate professor at the Netherlands Defense Academy, and a reserve major in the Netherlands army. He has done extensive fieldwork in military operations and has published accordingly in international journals and books. His main focus of interest is on civil-military interaction, effectiveness of military operations as well as logistics and information management. He co-edited volumes on civil-military cooperation (Ashgate, 2008) and research methods in studies (Routledge, forthcoming) and a special issue on defense logistics (International Journalof Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 2013). Sebastiaan is a regular speaker at the Cimic Centre of Excellence and the NATO School and has given presentations at numerous institutions and (academic) conferences including the Australian Defence Forces Academy, the European Committee on Security and Development and the US Marine Corps University.