NATO Military Committee

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s Military Committee (MC) is the body that is composed of member states' Chiefs of Defence (CHOD). These national CHODs are regularly represented in the MC by their permanent Military Representatives (MilRep), who often are officers of the rank of general and admiral. Like the Council, from time to time the Military Committee also meets at a higher level, namely at the level of Chiefs of Defence, the most senior military officer in each nation's armed forces.

NATO Military Committee
Location	Brussels, Belgium
Website	NATO.int
Commanders
Secretary General	Mark Rutte
Chair	Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone
Deputy Chair	Lieutenant General Andrew M. Rohling
Director General of the International Military Staff	Lieutenant General Remigijus Baltrėnas
Insignia
Chair's arms
Deputy Chair's arms
International Military Staff's arms
International Military Staff's flag

Role

Chairman in 2014, General Knud Bartels

The MC assists and advises the North Atlantic Council (NAC), Defence Planning Committee (DPC), and Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) on military matters including policy and strategy.^[1] Its principal role is to provide direction and advice on military policy and strategy. It provides guidance on military matters to the Supreme Allied Commanders of Allied Command Operations and Allied Command Transformation, whose representatives attend its meetings, and is responsible for the overall conduct of the military affairs of the Alliance under the authority of the Council. The executive body of the MC is the International Military Staff (IMS).^[2]

Current NATO Chiefs of Defence

Member	CHOD	Member	CHOD	Member	CHOD
Chief of the General Staff of Albania Member since 1 April 2009	Major General Arben Kingji [de; nl] of the  Albanian Land Force	Chief of Defence of Belgium Member since 24 August 1949	General Frederik Vansina of the  Belgian Air Component	Chief of Defence of Bulgaria Member since 29 March 2004	Admiral Emil Eftimov [bg; de; he] of the  Bulgarian Navy
Chief of the Defence Staff of Canada Member since 24 August 1949	General Jennie Carignan of the  Canadian Army	Chief of the General Staff of Croatia Member since 1 April 2009	Colonel general Tihomir Kundid of the  Croatian Army	Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Republic Member since 12 March 1999	Lieutenant General Karel Řehka of the Czech Special Forces
Chief of Defence of Denmark Member since 24 August 1949	General Michael Hyldgaard [da] of the  Royal Danish Army	Commander of the Defence Forces of Estonia Member since 29 March 2004	Major General Andrus Merilo of the  Estonian Land Forces	Chief of Defence of Finland Member since 4 April 2023	General Janne Jaakkola of the Finnish Army
Chief of the Defence Staff of France Member since 24 August 1949[a]	General Thierry Burkhard of the French Army	Inspector General of the Bundeswehr of Germany Member since 6 May 1955[b]	General Carsten Breuer of the  German Army	Chief of the General Staff of Greece Member since 18 February 1952	General Dimitrios Choupis [el] of the  Hellenic Army
Chief of the General Staff of Hungary Member since 12 March 1999	Colonel General Gábor Böröndi of the  Hungarian Ground Forces	Director of the Security and Defence Department of Iceland Member since 24 August 1949	Jónas G. Allansson	Chief of the Defence Staff of Italy Member since 24 August 1949	General Luciano Portolano of the  Italian Army
Commander of the Armed Forces of Latvia Member since 29 March 2004	Major General Kaspars Pudāns of the Latvian National Guard	Chief of Defence of Lithuania Member since 29 March 2004	General Raimundas Vaikšnoras of the  Lithuanian Land Force	Chief of Defence of Luxembourg Member since 24 August 1949	General Steve Thull of the  Luxembourg Army
Chief of the General Staff of Montenegro Member since 5 June 2017	Brigadier General Zoran Lazarević [de] of the Montenegrin Ground Army	Chief of Defence of the Netherlands Member since 24 August 1949	General Onno Eichelsheim of the  Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force	Chief of the General Staff of North Macedonia Member since 27 March 2020	Major General Saško Lafčiski of the North Macedonian Special Forces
Chief of Defence of Norway Member since 24 August 1949	General Eirik Kristoffersen of the  Norwegian Army	Chief of the General Staff of Poland Member since 12 March 1999	General Wiesław Kukuła of the Polish Territorial Defence Forces	Chief of the General Staff of Portugal Member since 24 August 1949	General José Nunes da Fonseca [he; pt] of the  Portuguese Army
Chief of the General Staff of Romania Member since 29 March 2004	General Gheorghiță Vlad [he] of the  Romanian Land Forces	Chief of the General Staff of Slovakia Member since 29 March 2004	Lieutenant General Daniel Zmeko of the Slovak Ground Forces	Chief of the General Staff of Slovenia Member since 29 March 2004	Brigadier Dean Groff [sl] of the Slovenian Ground Force
Chief of the Defence Staff of Spain Member since 30 May 1982	Admiral General Teodoro Esteban López Calderón of the Spanish Navy	Chief of Defence of Sweden Member since 7 March 2024	General Michael Claesson of the  Swedish Army	Chief of the General Staff of Turkey Member since 18 February 1952	General Metin Gürak of the Turkish Land Forces
Chief of the Defence Staff of the United Kingdom Member since 24 August 1949	Admiral Tony Radakin of the  Royal Navy	Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Member since 24 August 1949	General Dan Caine of the  United States Air Force

1. Excluded from the Committee in 1966–2008.
2. As West Germany. East Germany became part of NATO after German reunification on 3 October 1990

History

Until 2008 the Military Committee excluded France, due to that country's 1966 decision to remove itself from NATO's integrated military structure, which it rejoined in 1995. Until France rejoined NATO, it was not represented on the Defence Planning Committee, and this led to conflicts between it and NATO members. Such was the case in the lead up to Operation Iraqi Freedom.^[3]

Established in 1949 during the first Council session in Washington, the Military Committee is NATO's highest military authority and advises the NAC and NATO's strategic commanders, the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe.^[4]

• Arms of historical NATO commands
• 
  Allied Command Atlantic
• 
  Allied Command Channel
• 
  Allied Command Europe (Supreme Headquarters)

See also

• Structure of NATO
• International Military Staff
• Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
• European Union Military Committee