Karolina Pomorska is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, where she also held a Jean Monnet Chair. She had previously worked at the University of Cambridge and Maastricht University. Her research focuses on the European Union’s foreign and security policy, negotiations and informal side of diplomacy. Dr Pomorska also acts as an expert for the European Commission and provides training for various groups of practitioners, such as diplomats or military staff.

Nicole Maes lives in the Hague with her son and has been a diplomat for many years. Currently, she works on the implementation of the EU migration and asylum pact in the Netherlands as program manager at the Ministry of Asylum and Migration. She is running for parliament for the VVD, the liberal party established in 1949. She was the chair of the local VVD in the Hague from 2014 till 2019. In these turbulent times, she believes it is important that politicians experience how fragile a liberal democracy can be. That is why she wants to be part of political decision making at this moment in time and work on issues of international security.