General Knud Bartels, former Chief of the Defence Staff, Denmark, and former Chair of the NATO Military Committee

Department of Organisation (IOA) and The CBS Leadership Centre

'High Command, Leadership, and the  Role of the Professional Soldier Today'

General Knud Bartels, former Chief of the Defence Staff, Denmark, and former Chair of the NATO Military Committee

The Post-Cold War moment, that thirty-year period when globalization, free trade, and attempts to foster liberal democratic norms and practices throughout the world were marshalled under the aegis of American supremacy, has ended. Today, great-power rivalry, war, and a related competition for diminishing resources (not least as a result of accelerating climate change), are old realities reborn, revenants of history that now define a present of increasing peril and uncertainty.

In this presentation, General Knud Bartels, who held high office as Chief of Danish Defence Staff and then as Chair of the NATO Military Committee, will discuss the requirements of military command today. The presentation will cover what is expected of a military leader/commander in general and particularly the challenges to be faced at the political-military level. The issues will be addressed both from a national perspective and an international perspective. The challenges facing the armed forces of the Western Countries (NATO and EU) in the World of today will also be discussed at the military strategic level as well as at the political-military level.

12.30-12.35: Welcome (Professor Silviya Svejenova, Academic co-director, CBS Leadership Centre)

12.35-12.40: Introduction (Professor Paul du Gay, IOA)

12.40-13.30: High Command and the role of the professional soldier today (General Knud Bartels)

13.30-14.00: Q&A with General Bartels (facilitated by Associate Professor Anne Roelsgaard Obling, Head of research at the Department for Leadership and Organization at Royal Danish Defence College (FAK))

14.00-15.00: Reception (Atrium, Kilen)