Roy de Ruiter is Professor by Special Appointment in Maritime Strategy at the Institute of Political Science.

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Roy de Ruiter is Professor by Special Appointment of Maritime Strategy by Special Appointment at the Institute of Political Science. This chair is a collaboration between the Dutch Royal Association of Naval Officers (KVMO) and Leiden University with support of the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA). He also is Associate Professor of Maritime Strategy at the Faculty of Military Sciences at the NLDA.

His research and teaching (MA, Ba) concentrates on Sea Power, Maritime Strategy, Defence and Naval Policy, Strategic Foresight, and the Transformation of Military Organisations. On this topic he organised the Rotterdam Seapower Symposium and co-edited the proceedings European Navies and Global Challenges. He supervises four PhD-projects on topics ranging from seapower theory, the impact of climate change on maritime strategy and innovation underwater. Roy holds a PhD in history. His thesis, ‘Faultline 1989’ (University of Amsterdam), examined the post-Cold War transformation of the Dutch Armed Forces. He has published work on the Cold War, Strategic Foresight, Seapower, Maritime Air Power, Defence Policy and Military Education.

Roy de Ruiter is also an officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy with the rank of captain. As an ‘officer-scholar’ he combines a military and academic career. He has served around the world in NATO, UN, and national missions onboard naval vessels and helicopters. Ashore, he has held various postings in planning, policy, and strategy departments within the Ministry of Defence, the Navy, and the Air Force. Additionally, he was Lector (Dean) of the Netherlands Defence College, which provides Professional Military Education to officers and civilian employees at various levels throughout their careers. In this role he was responsible for the successful (re)accreditation of the MA in Security Studies in 2024.