A chief of defence (or head of defence) is the highest ranked commissioned officer of a nation's armed forces. The acronym CHOD is in common use within NATO and the European Union as a generic term for the highest national military position within the NATO and EU member states, rather than the actual term used for individual positions. Thus, irrespective of the formal national designation of that position is some variation on Commander-in-Chief, Chief of Staff, Supreme Commander, or something else, they can all be referred to unambiguously as CHODs in NATO and EU terminology, although other terms are sometimes also seen within NATO. Thus, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the CHOD of the United States, the Chief of the Defence Staff is the CHOD of the United Kingdom, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr is the CHOD of Germany, and the Chief of Defence (Forsvarssjefen) is the CHOD of Norway.
Within member states of NATO, the following national positions are the CHOD positions. Sometimes more than one form of translation into English is encountered.
Other Chief of Defence positions by (non-NATO and non-EU) country
Note that in many countries outside of NATO and EU, the concept of civilian control of the military is inapplicable. In some countries the minister of defence is often a senior military officer. However, the list below only lists CHOD equivalents and not defense ministers.
↑ Iceland presents a special case since the country does not have its own armed forces as such. Thus, a civilian at the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs fulfills the role of CHOD in relation to NATO.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
