Dr. Sebastian Bruns heads the Center for Maritime Strategy & Security (CMSS) at the ISPK. He is a specialist in naval strategy and the German and United States navies. Sebastian holds a PhD in Political Science (University of Kiel).

Dr. Bruns is the Chair of the event.

Timothy Choi is a PhD Candidate at the University of Calgary's Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, where his dissertation employs a broadened notion of sea control to analyze the influence of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the force structures and peacetime operations of three Arctic countries: Canada, Denmark, and Norway. His latest publication is "Danish Naval Evolution in the Arctic: Developments through the Unipolar Moment" in Kennedy and Wilson's Navies in Multipolar Worlds by Routledge; he also has a chapter on Canadian maritime forces in Grey and White Hulls by Bowers and Koh, as well as articles in the Arctic Yearbook and Ocean Development and International Law. He serves as a board member of the Canadian Naval Review and is also its Photo Editor.

Prof. Peter Dombrowski is the Director of the Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute and a professor of strategy in the Strategic and Operational Research Department. Previous positions include chair of the Strategic Research Department, editor of the Naval War College Review, co-editor of International Studies Quarterly, and associate professor of political science at Iowa State University. Dombrowski is the author of over 65 publications. His most recent book is, “The End of Grand Strategy: U.S. Maritime Operations in the 21st Century” (Cornell 2018). He received his B.A. from Williams College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

Christian Ehrlich is the founding Director of Riskop, Mexico’s leading Strategic intelligence and risk mitigation firm. He has worked as Non Resident Fellow at the Mexican Navy Strategic Research Institute, focusing on strategy and new types of conflict. A graduate of the William J Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (Defense Policy and Complex Threats), he is currently studying a MA in Maritime Security at Coventry University, UK. Christian has researched and published extensively on Mexico’s maritime domain and the country’s maritime security challenges.

He has been a speaker at both the Mexican Defense Secretariat’s National Defense College and the Mexican Navy Center for Higher Studies.

Jim Howe served for 27 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, retiring at the rank of Captain (O-6). He is the author of "Red Crew: Fighting the War on Drugs with Reagan´s Coast Guard", which chronicles real-world drug and migrant interdiction operations. Howe served 11 years at sea, and twice in command of Coast Guard cutters. He has earned masters degrees in government, strategic studies, and space studies, and now works in the nuclear power industry.

Tabitha Grace Mallory is Founder and CEO of the consulting firm China Ocean Institute and Affiliate Professor of the University of Washington Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. Dr. Mallory specializes in Chinese foreign and environmental policy. She conducts research on China and global ocean governance and has published work on China’s fisheries and oceans policy. She previously served as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Princeton–Harvard China and the World Program. Dr. Mallory holds a Ph.D. (with distinction) in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She is currently a fellow in the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations Public Intellectuals Program.

Prof. Sal Mercogliano is associate professor of history at Campbell University.

Andrea Luiza Fontes Resende de Souza is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais- PUC MINAS, Brazil, where she is developing a thesis about the United States Overseas Basing System. She holds a master degree in International Relations also from PUC MINAS, where she defended a dissertation about the presence of the U.S. Naval Forces in the South Atlantic. She is also a voluntary researcher in the Simulation and Scenarios Laboratory of the Brazilian Naval War College, member from the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies and from the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) and has published articles on various subjects ranging from gunboat diplomacy to securitization in South America.

Samuel Rivera-Páez: Doctor (Cum Laude) in Social and Human Sciences from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and Captain (Ret) of the Colombian Navy. He is a Professor at the Colombian National War College and Leader of the Critical Mass Research Group of that institution. He also collaborates as Consultant for the Caribbean and Latin America of the Global Maritime Crime Program of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He has published several articles, book chapters and edited books on Maritime Affairs such as "Maritime Interests of Colombia, proposals and reflections for the construction of a Maritime Country" and "Maritime Security: Counter-Terrorism Lessons from Maritime Piracy and Narcotics Interdiction".

Rafael Uribe Neira graduated in Juny 2020 with distinction from M.A. Peace and Conflict Studies at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany. He focuses his research on civil-military relations, narratives in security aid, and lots of pop culture. Since his time as a research assistant at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK) in the fall of 2018 and as an intern at the UN in Colombia in Winter 2018/2019, he developed a keen interest in the Caribbean and its global ties. Follow him on Twitter @RafaelUribeN.

Magiel Venema (44) started his career with the Royal Netherlands Navy. His military career included multiple operational deployments, a posting in the Dutch Caribbean and time at the Ministry of Defense. In 2011 he switched to the maritime industry, starting a commercial role with the Dutch shipbuilding company Damen. He worked for many years in Latin-America, from Mexico to Brazil, specializing in Defense business development and sales. Besides graduating from the Royal Netherlands Naval Academy, he also obtained a MA degree in Military History from the University of Amsterdam.