brussels<u+2014>the north atlantic treaty organization has appointed its first intelligence chief, a post designed to help the alliance improve information sharing and counterterrorism coordination. donald trump, the republican presidential nominee who has repeatedly criticized nato for too little focus on countering terrorism, said that the creation of the new post shows the alliance taking steps to react to his criticism. officials said friday that alliance secretary-general jens stoltenberg is appointing arndt freytag von loringhoven of germany as assistant secretary-general for intelligence and security. officials have said much of the initial work of the new assistant secretary-general for intelligence will focus on improving intelligence sharing focused on russia<u+2019>s military buildup as well as addressing duplication in civilian and military intelligence efforts. but officials have said the new post could also help improve counterterrorism intelligence sharing<u+2014>pushing nato into an area often left to bilateral cooperation. nato officials have denied that the intelligence post was created in response to mr. trump<u+2019>s criticisms. a longtime diplomat and currently the german ambassador to the czech republic, mr. von loringhoven, served as vice president of germany<u+2019>s federal intelligence service from 2007 to 2010. while some u.s. officials in washington had pushed for an american holding the job, the u.s. now has the deputy secretary-general post as well as another assistant position. alliance officials had sought a civilian for the post, preferably one with experience in military intelligence. the new post will oversee both the civilian intelligence analysts who provide information to the secretary-general and nato ambassadors, as well as uniformed analysts who work for nato<u+2019>s military committee. nato<u+2019>s counterintelligence operations, aimed at preventing russian infiltration of the alliance, will also report to the new assistant secretary-general, officials have said. dylan white, the acting nato spokesman, said the intelligence chief will lead a new division of both civilian and military staff. <u+201c>all the challenges we face have an intelligence dimension, including terrorism, hybrid warfare and our operations,<u+201d> mr. white said. the new intelligence chief will face hurdles combining the civilian and military intelligence cultures. an even bigger hurdle could be prodding allies including france to allow nato to have a larger role in counterterrorism. paris has been pushing for the eu, rather than nato, to have more of a coordinating role in counterterrorism matters. still, nato has advantages, especially with the pending british exit from the eu. britain has some of the strongest intelligence on terrorism threats to europe, as does the u.s. and turkey, neither of which belong to the eu. officials said the new intelligence chief is likely to focus on higher-level intelligence sharing about islamic state<u+2019>s strategy and operations, rather than tactical details of specific people trying to infiltrate into europe. write to julian barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com
nato appoints its first intelligence chief  - wsj
julian barnes