Q&A with Lieutenant General Max A. L. T. Nielsen, commandant of the NATO Defense College
Lieutenant General Max A. L. T. Nielsen has served as commandant of the NATO Defense College (NDC) in Rome since 2023, following a distinguished career in the Danish Armed Forces and NATO. The Defense Journal of the Atlantic Council Turkey Program recently interviewed him, covering NATO preparedness and planning, as well as the role of the NATO Defense College.
This interview has been lightly edited for style.
DJ: How should NATO define Allied resilience in the current strategic environment, where threats range from conventional military aggression to cyber, space, information, and critical infrastructure vulnerabilities?
I would define it as the capability to take a hit, recover, and keep fighting and working in all domains and all areas of society. You already know the seven specific baseline requirements agreed by NATO, and they represent a very good starting point: continuity of government and ability to make, communicate, and enforce critical decisions during a crisis; resilient energy supplies and capacity to manage disruptions and ensure continued supply; effective plans to manage displaced populations; food, water, and assured supply chains safe from disruption or sabotage; capacity to cope with disasters, alongside secure and stocked medical supplies; and resilient civil communications systems and civil transportation systems.
In other words, allied resilience today is the ability of our nations and societies to absorb, withstand, and recover from a spectrum of conventional and emerging threats while still delivering on NATO’s core tasks of deterrence and collective defense. It is not only about recovery after a shock but about ensuring that our forces can continue to operate, our institutions can function, and our populations remain protected under sustained pressure.
Resilience therefore depends on investment that delivers concrete capabilities and on resilient transport, energy, and digital networks, etc. Equally important, it requires civil preparedness and protection of our democratic institutions and information space against hybrid activities and disinformation, in line with NATO’s strengthened resilience commitments.
DJ: From your perspective, what are the most important lessons NATO has learned in recent years about strengthening deterrence while keeping the Alliance politically cohesive?
First and foremost, we (re-)learned that it takes unity and cohesion, resources, and capabilities to build a credible deterrence posture politically and militarily. We must come together to handle the challenges we face. No single nation can deliver answers to all the challenges by themself.
Deterrence depends on consistent and predictable investments that translate into concrete, deployable capabilities, ensuring readiness and credibility. At the same time, balanced sharing of responsibilities contributes to maintaining cohesion across the Alliance. The task of informing our populations adequately about the situation we are facing, and what our political leaders are considering doing to cope with this, is paramount. No public support, less cohesion. Less cohesion, less power and credibility. Less power and credibility, less deterrence.
In this perspective, the need to stand up for our values is as important as ever. We need to show that we are serious. One example is the continued support to Ukraine. Also, the capacity to produce calibrated and proportionate responses to hybrid activities, manage risks, avoid unintended escalation, and demonstrate resolve is key.
DJ: How can NATO better integrate military readiness, civil preparedness, and societal resilience into a single Allied framework?
A more integrated approach requires allies to better align military readiness, civil preparedness, and societal resilience through coordinated planning, shared standards, and regular joint exercises: a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, as we have seen with the Nordic countries’ “Total Defence” approach.
This includes recognizing critical infrastructure, such as transport corridors, ports, airfields, energy systems, and digital networks, as essential enablers of defense and security. Strengthening resilience also depends on structured cooperation with the private sector and local authorities, and on ensuring that systems can function under physical, cyber, and hybrid disruption. A very important dimension here is the military industrial base, which has to be able to adjust, adapt, and constantly manage scaling challenges to support the requirements of all security actors—civilian as well as military.
DJ: Airpower remains central to NATO’s deterrence posture. How do you see the role of Allied air forces evolving in an era of drones, long-range precision strike, integrated air and missile defense, and contested airspace?
Airpower remains a central component of deterrence and defense, but its role is evolving in response to increasingly contested and technologically complex environments. The proliferation of uncrewed systems, long-range precision strike capabilities, and advanced air and missile defense systems challenge traditional concepts of air superiority. Future effectiveness will depend on integrating manned and unmanned platforms, ensuring resilient command and control, securing data links, and enabling dispersed and sustainable operations. Airpower will continue to contribute to surveillance, situational awareness, and crisis management across different regions and domains; e.g., Air Policing missions.
The requirement to develop, field, and use new and highly adaptable air defense systems follows in a constant “cat and mouse” cycle. Adaptability is key. Constant innovation is a prerequisite.
DJ: What role should professional military education institutions, such as the NATO Defense College, play in preparing future Allied leaders for a more complex and contested security environment?
Professional military education institutions are essential to prepare future Allied leaders for a more complex and contested environment: constantly looking ahead, anticipating, forecasting, promoting innovation, critical thinking, and speed.
The NATO Defense College’s primary mission is to educate senior officers, diplomats, and officials for leadership roles within NATO and in national and multinational structures, promoting strategic thinking, collaborative decision-making and effective work within a diverse Alliance. Through its flagship Senior Course and shorter courses, the College deepens understanding of NATO’s core tasks, regional dynamics, and cross-cutting issues such as resilience, hybrid threats, and emerging technologies. We need to do this more, better, and faster.
The same applies for Allied PME [professional military education] institutions. They will have to develop a stronger NATO link in their curricula and build the knowledge and capacity to work together and fight together across nations and borders. The old and still highly relevant gospel of standardization and interoperability applies, and our ambitions must be very high.
The College’s research and outreach provide fora for dialogue, exchange of views on the future, and means of cooperation. We study and promulgate trends from Russia’s war against Ukraine and developments in the High North to the Western Balkans, the Southern neighborhood, and global competition. By bringing together military and civilian leaders from Allied and partner nations, the NDC also builds “human interoperability”: habits of cooperation, mutual understanding, and trust that are vital for effective multinational operations and for Allied cohesion.
DJ: Looking ahead, what should NATO prioritize to ensure that the Alliance remains credible, adaptive, and operationally effective over the next decade?
Ensuring long-term credibility, adaptability, and operational effectiveness depends on several key factors. First and foremost, it requires allies to come together in a truly shared vision and strategy on how to provide for our common and shared security, including a clear intent and pathway to build and preserve a credible deterrence and defense posture. With a vison, strategy, and plan in place, we must focus on consistent implementation of thusly agreed commitments, alignment between resources and capabilities, and sustained industrial capacity to support current and foreseeable requirements.
Maintaining cohesion and public support remains essential to the cohesion of the Alliance and indispensable to credibility and effectiveness—not only as a security provider, but also as a defensive Alliance.
Lieutenant General Max A. L. T. Nielsen has served as commandant of the NATO Defense College (NDC) in Rome since 2023. He previously served as Chief of Air Staff in the Royal Danish Air Force, and as Denmark’s Military Representative to NATO and the EU.
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Within the Atlantic Council’s longstanding commitment to strengthening the transatlantic relationship, the Atlantic Council Turkey Program conducts research, provides thought leadership, and offers a platform for strategic dialogue between the US, Turkey, and NATO allies to address the region’s toughest challenges and explore opportunities, including in the fields of energy, business & trade, technology, defense, and security.
Image: NDC Commandant LGEN Max Nielsen speaks with participants at the NATO Defence College. Photo courtesy of NATO Defence College.