H. (Hugo) Vijver

Hugo graduated from Leiden University in 2004 with a thesis on political violence and military dictatorships. Following his studies, he worked as a political analyst and later as policy adviser with the Foreign Intelligence Directorate of the AIVD, serving in the Caribbean Region and Counter-Proliferation teams. In 2014, he moved to the Ministry of Defence, where he advised the administrative and political leadership on intelligence and security matters. From Defence, Hugo contributed to the drafting of the Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 and authored the Defence Cyber Strategy. In this capacity, he engaged in extensive consultations with international partners, from Paris to Washington, and from Vilnius to London.

He represented the Netherlands at the NATO Cyber Defence Management Board and, together with (inter)national colleagues, helped establish the EU Cyber Rapid Response Teams. At the same time, he earned his master’s degree at the Netherlands Defence Academy in Breda, writing his thesis on deterrence in the military cyber domain — a work that won the Royal Netherlands Society for Military Sciences thesis award.

Hugo has a particular interest in complex topics such as international intelligence cooperation, intelligence failures, intelligence analysis, the functioning of the intelligence cycle, and the cyber domain. Drawing on his expertise and experience, he regularly writes and speaks on these issues in national media such as NOS News, EenVandaag, Radio 1, NRC and de Volkskrant.