Martijn Kitzen Email & Phone Number

Chair Irregular Warfare & Special Operations

As Associate Professor with a special interest in Irregular Warfare & Special Operations my teaching and research activities focus on the past, present, and future of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, stability operations, security force assistance and unconventional warfare as well as other forms of special operations.

Developing, coordinating and teaching courses on irregular warfare, stabilization, insurgency and counterinsurgency at both BA-and MA-level. I advocate merging empirical evidence and insights from the field with theoretical findings and encourage my students, in particular those who write their theses, to do the same. No good teaching without strong research! In addition to my scholarly work I provide assistance and advise to military organizations, units, as well as individual commanders. Among others I have been involved in the revision of NATO AJP 3.4.4 (counterinsurgency) as an academic advisor.

As director of the Irregular Warfare Initiative's special project Europe I seek to provide a platform for European irregular warfare practitioners, policy makers and scholars as part of the larger IWI community.

The Irregular Warfare Initiative, sponsored by the Modern War Institute at West Point and the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project at Princeton, appointed me as a senior fellow for 2022

Thinking and writing about war and peacemaking

Oorlog onder de Mensen, Militaire inzichten uit Atjeh en Uruzgan

Den Haag, Zuid-Holland, Nederland

Member of the team evaluating the Dutch contribution (2014-2019) to the United Nations Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). While formally embedded within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the researchers operate independently and in accordance with academic standards. I serve as the senior subject matter expert on military operations. This position is a part-time secondment for the duration of the evaluation.

Oxford, Verenigd Koninkrijk

During Academic Year 2017-2018 I am working as a Visiting Research Fellow with the CCW at Oxford University. Please see the link below for the projects I am working on.

Vetting Dutch counterinsurgency experiences with a particular focus on the dynamics of interaction between soldiers and local power-holders. During this period I was also deployed as an army major (2008) to advice and assist the Dutch Task Force in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province in implementing a Key Leader Engagement program.

Various positions in both the Royal Netherlands Army and Air Force including, among others, a deployment as platoon commander mobile force reserve with UNFICYP (2000-2001) and military flight school (2004).

Doctor (Dr), Geschiedenis

PhD dissertation: The Course of Co-option: Co-option of local power-holders as a tool for obtaining control over the population.

Drs., Politieke Wetenschappen (Political Science)

Kma-Ii: Operaties

Kma-I: Operaties, Personeel & Logistiek

Gymnasium