Bernard Siman

Senior Associate Fellow

b.siman@egmontinstitute.be

Hybrid Threats and Warfare

Biography

Bernard Siman, O.B.E. is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Egmont Institute covering Hybrid Threats and Warfare. He is also Head of Cyber and Financial Diplomacy at the Brussels Diplomatic Academy of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He teaches graduates and diplomats “The International Monetary Policy & Financial Architecture” and “Cyber Diplomacy & Statecraft”. He also teaches regularly at the Belgian Royal Military Academy. He was one of the authors of one of the first applied research reports on Hybrid Warfare in the Middle East, published by LSEideas, the foreign policy and security think tank of his alma mater, the London School of Economics and Political Science. In addition to financial services and security, he specialises in Hybrid Warfare and Mediterranean, Black Sea and Maritime and Middle East geopolitics, advising both governments and corporates. He has written extensively on these topics. He is a Member of both Chatham House and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

His background spans both the private sector, academia as well as public service. He was the UK Special Representative to the UAE for Financial and Professional Services, and Co-Chair of the bilateral “Financial and Professional services Working Group” and the “Shipping and Maritime Task Force”, advising both governments on market access as well as on opportunities. He has worked in financial services in London, Tokyo, Turkey, the Mediterranean region, and the Gulf (where he lived for 13 years). He was a Visiting Fellow at the Cass Business School, City University of London.

He obtained, inter alia, an MPhil in Government from the LSE and a Graduate Diploma in Civil Engineering from Kyoto University, Japan where he lived and worked for 10 years. He was honoured by HM The Queen as an Officer in the Order of the British Empire, and by HM King Filip of the Belgians as a Knight in the Order of Leopold.

In addition to English and Dutch, he speaks Japanese, Arabic, and some German. He has a lifelong interest in military history!

Publications