Army Lieutenant General John Nicholson has been appointed as the commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan. He succeeded US General John Campbell who has been leading the Afghan operations for nearly 18 months. The powerful Senate Armed Services Committee confirmed Nicholson’s nomination during a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan where the outgoing commander US General John Campbell testified before the Senators.

At present, Nicholas was US Army commander of NATO land forces. Earlier, he had served in multiple capacities like chief of staff of operations for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US Forces – Afghanistan, director of Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell for the Joint Staff, and deputy commander – Stability of ISAF Regional Command – South.

 NATO 

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949.
• NATO’s headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, where the Supreme Allied Commander also resides.
• The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.
• The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70 percent of the global total.
• The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom, is considered the precursor to the NATO agreement.