LISBON - The 21st International Command Senior Enlisted Leaders (CSEL) Conference, held from May 26 to 29, 2025, in Lisbon, brought together senior non-commissioned leaders from more than 35 NATO Allies and Partners, including key attendees from Japan, Kosovo, Jordan, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
This year’s theme, “Where we started, where we are now,” served as a strategic lens for examining the progress, challenges, and future direction of NATO’s non-commissioned officers (NCO) corps. Topics included everything from interoperability development to the role of NCOs in enhancing warfighting capability.
The appetite for perfection and the striving for being better I see in the whole NCO community—it’s fantastic.
General Christopher Cavoli, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), delivered recorded remarks to the participants, offering both recognition and clear expectations. “The role of our enlisted leaders, especially our senior enlisted leaders, is essential to all of these,” said General Cavoli. “Enhancing our military interoperability through relationships, tough military training as Allies and partners, that’s what tests our ability to operate in combined formations and builds personal ties across nations,” he added.
The 21st International CSEL Conference in front of Lisbons famous monument, the castle of Belem. NATO Photo by OR-7 Dennis Sattler
ACO's current CSEL CWO Kevin Mathers and his designated successor, the current HUN Command Sergeant Major Zoltan Kaszab. NATO Photo by OR-7 Dennis Sattler
The ICC held a remembrance Ceremony in front of the monument for the peacekeeping mission's combatant. NATO Photo by OR-7 Dennis Sattler
Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Mathers opened the conference by highlighting the power of shared experience and collective learning across the alliance. “The power is in the basic understanding that exists in one of our areas of operation, then being shared in the entire group, puts us in a space, where the collective has years of experience, and an incredible amount of research and analysis, all put into the space of the entire area of responsibility of SACEUR. That puts us in a really powerful position of deterrence,” said Mathers.
Throughout the conference, discussions were candid and forward-looking. Central themes included the NCO corps’ contribution to NATO’s response to the war in Ukraine, the vital need for deepened interoperability, and evolving concepts of mission command and leadership at the enlisted level.
Chief Warrant Officer Zoltan Kaszab, current Command Sergeant Major of the Hungarian Defence Forces and set to succeed Mathers in October, stated, “The appetite for perfection and the striving for being better I see in the whole NCO community—it’s fantastic.”