Jens Stoltenberg

Jens Stoltenberg’s 10 years as NATO Secretary General were some of the most turbulent years in the Alliance’s history. The former Norwegian Prime Minister took office shortly after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. The following years saw major terrorist attacks in Allied countries, political upheavals that shook the Alliance and a once-in-a-century global pandemic – and that was all before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, bringing war to NATO’s borders.

Throughout this tempestuous decade, Jens Stoltenberg was a constant. With steady hands and a cool head, he guided the Alliance through crisis after crisis, remaining focused on what NATO could do to address the challenges it faced. He held the Alliance together, using his diplomatic skills to navigate disagreements and keep a growing number of Allies on the same page. He pushed the Allies to continue building their military strength for collective defence, while also preparing NATO for an uncertain future by putting climate change, artificial intelligence and China on the agenda. No wonder the Allies agreed unanimously to extend his mandate an unprecedented four times.

3,654 days at the helm

Behind these headline moments, Stoltenberg’s day-to-day life at NATO consisted of several activities: chairing the North Atlantic Council, meeting with Allies and partners to coordinate policy, welcoming world leaders to NATO Headquarters, travelling to member and partner countries across the globe, speaking to the media and leading the Alliance’s International Staff.

Despite this hectic schedule, Stoltenberg always made time to meet people and engage with them as NATO’s chief representative. One time, for example, as he was walking to the main entrance of NATO Headquarters to greet the King of Jordan, he ran into a group of visiting Polish and Ukrainian students. Even though he was in a rush, he took the time to chat with all of the students and take photos before resuming his official duties.

Stoltenberg showed the same friendly and informal spirit with his staff. He usually offered to make coffee himself for his staff ahead of long meetings, and he always kept a bowl with small bars of chocolate on the working table in his office. During difficult periods, such as negotiations on summit declarations, he would make impromptu visits to staff teams to thank them for their hard work, sometimes bringing them pizza as well as words of encouragement.

One of the biggest changes during Stoltenberg’s tenure was the inauguration of a new NATO Headquarters. The project had been planned long before his arrival, but in his first days at NATO, he was taken to the basement and shown some of the repairs and improvised cables that kept the old building together. This made him even more convinced of the importance of moving from the 50-year-old previous headquarters (which had been built in 1967 as a “temporary” HQ) to a new building across the street in Brussels. 

To celebrate the move to the new HQ, Stoltenberg hosted a hot dog party for all NATO staff in the new building’s cavernous central agora. Stoltenberg insisted on serving food and taking photos with all the staff, and he convinced high-ranking officials to do the same. He carried on this tradition at an annual Christmas party for NATO staff, and he was known for giving massive portions of Norwegian salmon as Christmas gifts. After his final summit – NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington D.C. in July 2024 – he hosted a summer garden party behind NATO Headquarters to thank staff members for their dedication over the years.

A Norwegian in Brussels

Outside the office, Stoltenberg showed the same dedication to keeping a casual and down-to-earth atmosphere. At the Secretary General’s official residence in Brussels, Stoltenberg and his wife, Ingrid Schulerud, maintained a very active social calendar, hosting high-level guests (including his eventual successor, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte) as well as family and friends.

In his home, Stoltenberg carried on a tradition of “kitchen table diplomacy” that he learned from his father, Thorvald Stoltenberg, who had served as Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence. As a child and young adult, Stoltenberg would come downstairs in the morning to find his father serving breakfast to diplomats and world leaders, including Nelson Mandela – pouring their coffee, discussing important topics over a simple meal of Norwegian mackerel, brown cheese and bread that he had bought from the local bakery that morning. This shocked the Norwegian protocol office, but Stoltenberg saw the value of opening his private home and setting an informal tone for genuine conversations.   

In addition to welcoming guests, Stoltenberg and Schulerud were warm and friendly with the residence staff, insisting on being referred to simply as Jens and Ingrid. Stoltenberg grew particularly close with the residence’s chef, learning how to make ice cream and other dishes. Stoltenberg and Schulerud also made several improvements to the Brussels residence for future Secretaries General and their guests, including installing a sauna in the principal guest bathroom.

In his rare moments of personal time, Stoltenberg made the most of his life in Belgium, visiting battlefields and war cemeteries in and around the country, and also cycling in Brussels and the surrounding area. He also enjoyed attending cultural events in the Belgian capital, including performances by his daughter Catharina, an accomplished electronic musician. At her shows, he tried to blend into the crowd (his bodyguards had to dress down in shorts, with just their earpieces suggesting they were unusual concert attendees).

Travels around the world

Beyond day-to-day life in Brussels, Stoltenberg travelled extensively, meeting with Heads of State and Government from NATO Allies and partners. He was the first Secretary General to make official visits to Malta and Saudi Arabia, and he even set foot in North Korea (albeit in the United Nations conference room that straddles the line of the Demilitarized Zone). He was also the first NATO Secretary General to make joint trips with a European Union leader, travelling with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Latvia and Lithuania in 2021, and a Norwegian natural gas platform in 2023. And he made a point to visit Utøya in Norway every July, to commemorate the terrorist attacks that took place there in 2011 when he was Prime Minister.

Stoltenberg’s travels included many visits to Washington D.C., the birthplace of NATO. For NATO’s 70th anniversary in 2019, Stoltenberg became the first Secretary General to address a joint session of the United States Congress. On the occasion of the Alliance’s 75th anniversary in 2024, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President Joe Biden in the same room where the North Atlantic Treaty was signed.

During his travels, Stoltenberg maintained his active lifestyle. His brisk walks often left staffers scrambling to keep up, including in the Swiss Alps, Tokyo’s Imperial Palace Gardens and Washington’s National Mall. Beyond staying fit, he also found time to experience local curiosities whenever possible. During an official visit to Australia, for example, he had his team pull off the highway to see some kangaroos in the wild (to the amusement of his Australian security detail).

Support for Ukraine

No single issue impacted Stoltenberg’s tenure more than Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In the months leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, Stoltenberg held many press conferences calling out Russia’s massive military build-up along Ukraine’s borders, declassifying unprecedented amounts of NATO intelligence to provide proof and push back against the Kremlin’s lies. He nonetheless tried to maintain dialogue with Russia and de-escalate, including by chairing the NATO-Russia Council in January 2022.

Throughout the war, Stoltenberg worked tirelessly to ensure that the Allies were providing Ukraine with the support it needs to survive and to prevail. At NATO summits in Madrid (2022), Vilnius (2023) and Washington D.C. (2024), he helped Allies reach consensus on pledges of long-term, sustainable assistance for Ukraine – and repeated affirmations that it is on an irreversible path to NATO membership.

Of course, Stoltenberg also worked to make sure that NATO was prepared to defend its own territory in the event of a larger conflict. After Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, he pushed Allies to strengthen their military capabilities and step up deterrence and defence of NATO territory, including by setting up multinational battlegroups along NATO’s eastern flank. This ensured that NATO was able to trigger its defence plans within hours of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The next day, Stoltenberg chaired the first-ever virtual NATO summit, where Allied Leaders discussed defensive measures and pledged their support to Ukraine.

A growing Alliance

While Stoltenberg was not the Secretary General to welcome the most countries into NATO (that honour goes to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who brought in seven new Allies during the ‘Big Bang’ enlargement in 2004 and two more in 2009), he nonetheless oversaw the most rounds of NATO enlargement, welcoming Montenegro (2017), North Macedonia (2020), Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024).

Stoltenberg worked particularly hard to get consensus on the accessions of Finland and Sweden. On the eve of the 2022 Madrid Summit, he spent hours negotiating with the leaders of Finland, Sweden and Türkiye, emerging with a late-night deal that set the path to their membership. The talks took so long that Stoltenberg and his wife had to miss the official dinner at the Spanish Royal Palace, settling instead for a beer with the staff who had worked on the deal.

All four enlargements were historic developments for NATO, but Stoltenberg was especially moved by the integration of his fellow Nordic countries, particularly Sweden, into the Alliance. Shortly after Sweden’s accession, Stoltenberg joked with colleagues that not only had the country set aside 200 years of neutrality to join NATO – with even more difficulty, it had put aside its age-old rivalry with Norway. Indeed, the last time Norway was at war, it was with Sweden!

Life after NATO

After 10 years in Brussels, Stoltenberg was eager to return to his homeland, which he had visited frequently throughout his tenure. It’s never truly possible for the Secretary General of NATO to disconnect and get away from the demands of the job. But during holidays spent trekking around the Oslo fjord, cross-country skiing and hiking in the Norwegian mountains, Stoltenberg was able to find moments of peace. In Norway, in the wilderness, he didn’t have to be the former Prime Minister, or the Secretary General of NATO. As he put it, in these settings, “I am always just Jens.”