Klaas Dijkhoff

Klaas Henricus Dominicus Maria Dijkhoff (born 13 January 1981) is a Dutch legal scholar and politician who led the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021. He previously was Minister of Defence (2017) and State Secretary for Security and Justice (2015–2017).

A jurist by occupation, Dijkhoff resides in Breda. He was elected as a member of the House of Representatives in the 2010 general election. After the resignation of Fred Teeven, he was appointed to succeed him and resigned as a parliamentarian the same day he took office as State Secretary at the Ministry of Security and Justice in the Second Rutte cabinet on 20 March 2015. After the resignation of Minister of Defence Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Dijkhoff was nominated to serve out the remainder of her term in the already demissionary Second Rutte cabinet and resigned as State Secretary for Security and Justice on 4 October 2017 and served as Minister of Defence until the Third Rutte cabinet was installed on 26 October 2017.

Dijkhoff announced in October 2020 that he would retire from politics following the 2021 general election.

Early life and education

Klaas Henricus Dominicus Maria Dijkhoff was born on 13 January 1981 in the town of Soltau in Germany. He is the son of officer Henricus Marikus Cornelis Dijkhoff and nurse Petronella Dominicus Maria Thijssen.

Dijkhoff went to secondary school in Eindhoven, where he did the gymnasium programme. He then studied Dutch law at the Tilburg University, where he successively obtained an LLM degree in international and European law in 2003, an MPhil degree cum laude in 2005, and a PhD degree in law of war in 2010 with his dissertation titled War, Law and Technology.