Martijn Kitzen is Professor by Special Appointment of Military Science at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University. The chair, established and funded by the Royal Netherlands Society for War Studies (KVBK) in cooperation with the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA), focuses on the operational deployment of military force. He also holds a chair in Irregular Warfare and Special Operations at the NLDA, where he chairs the War Studies Department within the Faculty of Military Sciences.