25 Years Good Service Medal Knight 1 st Class of the French National Order of Merit Knud Bartels (born 8 April 1952)[2] is a retired Danish general, who served as the Danish Chief of Defence between 2009 and 2011 and was Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2011 to 2015.

[5] He succeeded admiral Tim Sloth Jørgensen who resigned after being involved in the controversy around a fake Arabic translation of Jæger – i krig med eliten, a book by a former special forces soldier which he tried to suppress.

Although other chiefs of defence were considered for the top NATO job, in the final week before the vote the other candidates – as is the custom – sensing a lack of majority support for their own candidacy, withdrew from consideration so that the election of General Bartels could be unanimous when the committee met to vote on Saturday 17 September 2011.

Upon his election on 17 September 2011, General Bartels announced that he planned to step-down as Danish Chiefs of Defence on 30 April 2012 in order to prepare to take over as NATO Chairman effective 1 July 2012.

The admiral resigned as NATO Chairman on 18 November, turning over to his deputy, Lieutenant General Walter Gaskin (U.S. Marine Corps), and flew to Rome.