Secretary (title)

Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. The term is derived from the Latin word secernere, "to distinguish" or "to set apart", the passive participle (secretum) meaning "having been set apart", with the eventual connotation of something private or confidential, as with the English word secret. A secretarius was a person, therefore, overseeing business confidentially, usually for a powerful individual (a king, pope, etc.).

The official title of the leader of most Communist and Socialist political parties is the "General Secretary of the Central Committee" or "First Secretary of the Central Committee". When a Communist party is in power, the General Secretary is usually the country's de facto leader (though sometimes this leader also holds state-level positions to monopolize power, such as a presidency or premiership in order to constitute de jure leadership of the state), such as China and Cuba.

Secretary General of NATO

The Secretary General of NATO (French: Secrétaire général de l'OTAN) is an international diplomat who serves as the chief official of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Secretary General is responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, serves as the head of the North Atlantic Council, and leads NATO's staff. The current Secretary General is Jens Stoltenberg, a former Prime Minister of Norway, who took office on 1 October 2014.

Establishment

Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty requires NATO members to "establish a Council, on which each of them shall be represented." Accordingly, the North Atlantic Council was formed. Initially the Council consisted of NATO members' foreign ministers and met annually. In May 1950, the desire for closer coordination on a day-to-day basis led to the appointment of Council deputies, permanently based in London and overseeing the workings of the organization. Deputies were given full decision-making authority within the North Atlantic Council, but their work was supplemented by occasional meetings of the NATO foreign ministers. The Chairman of the deputies was given responsibility "for directing the organization and its work," including all of its civilian agencies.

NATO

Coordinates: 50°52′34″N 4°25′19″E / 50.87611°N 4.42194°E / 50.87611; 4.42194

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO /ˈneɪtoʊ/; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord; OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, where the Supreme Allied Commander also resides. Belgium is one of the 28 member states across North America and Europe, the newest of which, Albania and Croatia, joined in April 2009. An additional 22 countries participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70 percent of the global total. Members' defense spending is supposed to amount to 2 percent of GDP.

Face the Nation

Face the Nation is an American Sunday morning political interview show broadcast on the CBS television network. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, it is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television. The current moderator is John Dickerson, who succeeded long-time moderator Bob Schieffer beginning with the June 7, 2015, broadcast.

Overview

Each Sunday, the program's moderator interviews newsmakers on the latest political and socioeconomic issues, and delivers a short topical commentary at the end of the broadcast. The program generally broadcasts from CBS News' bureau in Washington, D.C. Guests include government leaders, politicians, and international figures in the news. CBS News correspondents and other contributors often engage the guests in a roundtable discussion focusing on current topics. The program is broadcast live at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time/9:30 a.m. Central Time (immediately following CBS News Sunday Morning), although most CBS affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone air it at 8:30 a.m. local time. Local affiliates are free to air the show at the time of their choosing, usually before noon local time. A delayed audio broadcast of the program is also carried on a handful of radio affiliates through the CBS Radio Network.

Jens Stoltenberg

Jens Stoltenberg ( listen ; born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who is the 13th Secretary General of NATO. He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2013. In March 2014, Stoltenberg was appointed by NATO's North Atlantic Council to be the treaty organization's secretary general and chairman of the North Atlantic Council, succeeding Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Stoltenberg assumed his position on 1 October 2014.

A member of the Labour Party, Stoltenberg was first elected to Parliament in 1993 for the Oslo constituency. He served as state secretary in the Ministry of the Environment from 1990 to 1991 and as Minister of Industry from 1993 to 1996 in the Brundtland's Third Cabinet, respectively. Following the resignation of Gro Harlem Brundtland in 1996, Thorbjørn Jagland became prime minister, while Stoltenberg was appointed Minister of Finance, an office he held until October 1997 when Jagland and the entire government resigned as a consequence of its 36.9 ultimatum. While in parliamentary opposition, Stoltenberg served in the standing committee on energy affairs. He became the parliamentary leader and prime minister candidate for the Labour Party in February 2000. Following a motion of no confidence against the Bondevik's First Cabinet, Stoltenberg was appointed Prime Minister in March 2000. The policies of the first Stoltenberg cabinet were markedly inspired by Tony Blair's New Labour and saw the most widespread privatisation by any Norwegian government to that date.