Kristian van der Bij is a student of European Studies at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. For his studies, he studies the European Union from a political and cultural perspective. For Euro Prospects, he writes about NATO and the EU as Defence Correspondent and as Senior Editor he is responsible for starting authors. He is also active in the European Affairs Working Group of the Dutch National Youth Council (NJR) for which he gives guest lectures on the EU throughout the Netherlands. For EPIS, he writes as a Junior Research Fellow on defence, security policy and EU accession within the Europe Working Group. Kristian is 22 years old and lives in The Hague.