Tod Wolters
Tod Wolters (military) | ||||||||||||||||
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Born | 1960 | |||||||||||||||
Nationality | US | |||||||||||||||
Alma mater | United States Air Force Academy, Army War College | |||||||||||||||
Interests | nuclear war | |||||||||||||||
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe 2019-2022. Enthusiast for flexible first use of nuclear weapons.
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Tod Daniel Wolters is a United States Air Force four-star general who was the commander of U.S. European Command and concurrently as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). He was previously the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa.
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Career
Wolters' previous assignment was as the Director for Operations, Joint Staff, Washington, D.C. He assisted the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in fulfilling his responsibilities as the principal military advisor to the President and Secretary of Defense. Wolters develops and provides strategic guidance to the combatant commands and relays communications between the President and the Secretary of Defense to the combatant commanders regarding current operations and plans.
He has fought in operations Desert Storm, and others in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wolters has also served in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, as Director of Legislative Liaison, and in Headquarters' staff positions at United States Pacific Command, Headquarters United States Air Force, and Air Force Space Command.
From 2016 to April 2019, he was Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe; Commander of U.S. Air Forces Africa; Commander, Allied Air Command, headquartered at the megabase Ramstein in Germany; and Director of the Joint Air Power Competency Centre.
"Flexible first use policy" of nuclear weapons
In 2020, he told told the Senate that he is a fan of using nuclear weapons first:
- What are your views, Sir," Senator Fischer asked, "of adopting a so-called no-first-use policy. Do you believe that that would strengthen deterrence?"
- General Wolters’ response was straight to the point. "Senator, I’m a fan of flexible first use policy."[1]
In the same hearing, Wolters said "Since 2015 the Alliance placed increased emphasis on the role of nuclear capabilities" and "the European Command of the United States fully supports the recommendations contained in the Nuclear Posture Review 2018 to deploy the W76-2 low-power ballistic missile."[2]
Events Participated in
Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
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Munich Security Conference/2017 | 17 February 2017 | 19 February 2017 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 53rd Munich Security Conference |
Munich Security Conference/2020 | 14 February 2020 | 16 February 2020 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 56th Munich Security Conference, in 2020, "welcomed an unprecedented number of high-ranking international decision-makers." |
Munich Security Conference/2022 | 18 February 2022 | 20 February 2022 | Germany Munich Bavaria | Slightly less than 1/3 of the 664 of the participants have pages here |
References
Wikipedia is not affiliated with Wikispooks. Original page source here