#GENERAL SERVED AS SUPREME COMMANDER HOW TO#
#GENERAL SERVED AS SUPREME COMMANDER SERIES#

He’ll also take the helm during a reimagining in Washington and across Europe over how they plan to fund and equip their militaries.įor years, the prevailing policy view across NATO was to avoid provoking Putin, but many of those considerations were tossed aside the night of Feb. In getting the buy-in across the continent to hold complex, weekslong exercises that stretch across borders and involve ground, air and naval forces, Cavoli has forged the kinds of connections that will be critical in keeping the angsty 30-member NATO alliance rowing in the same direction.

#GENERAL SERVED AS SUPREME COMMANDER SERIES#

Having served as the head of the Army’s Europe/Africa command since 2018, he’s lived in Germany for the past four years spearheading a series of NATO exercises that have been the largest and most ambitious since the 1980s, bringing dozens of nations - including non-NATO partners Finland and Sweden - into the fold in unprecedented ways.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a moment like this where a new commander has come in … and had so much on his plate on the first day,” said Leah Scheunemann, the deputy director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council.Ĭavoli won’t come into the job cold.

#GENERAL SERVED AS SUPREME COMMANDER HOW TO#

“So much on his plate”Ī decorated combat vet and universally praised four-star Army general, Cavoli is poised to become NATO’s top general just as the alliance tackles the biggest challenge of the post-Cold War era: How to confront and deter Vladimir Putin as he continues his unhinged campaign in Ukraine. If confirmed by the Senate to take the new job, he’ll be responsible for leading those troops in an increasingly uncertain showdown with the Kremlin, taking the helm of an expanding NATO that is expected to more than double its border with Russia once Finland joins the alliance. Since 2018, those two sides of his career path have been at work as Cavoli has sought to transform how and where U.S. “He’s had an unusual career progression compared to your average Army four-star, which I think is actually a good and encouraging thing,” said Richard Hooker, former director for Europe and Russia for the National Security Council and dean of the NATO Defense College in Rome. But Cavoli has charted a career moving back and forth between front-line deployments to Afghanistan and leading infantry units to think tank and strategy jobs. His new role as a foreign area officer focused on Russia, along with a stint on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff looking at Moscow, typically spells the end of operational deployments and four-star commands. The Yale degree would normally result in a fork in an Army officer’s career. Along the way, he got a master’s degree from Yale in Russian Studies, adding a fluency in that language to the Italian and French he had already picked up. His senior thesis, “The Effect of Earthworms on the Vertical Distribution of Slime Molds in the Soil,” didn’t exactly foreshadow the career of a wartime military leader.Īfter graduating, he received his officer commission and joined the infantry, deploying to the first Gulf War and spending time in Italy and Germany. European Command and become NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe - would go on to graduate from Princeton University in 1987 with an A.B. Cavoli - President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead U.S.

General served as supreme commander