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Burcu San
Acting Assistant Secretary General - Operations
Feb 2026 - Present
Feb 2026 - Present
Burcu San is the Deputy Assistant Secretary General (DASG) for Operations since 2022, and acting Assistant Secretary General since 1 February 2026.
She provides political oversight of NATO’s military missions and operations, defence plans, crisis response and exercises, and counter-terrorism. She also oversees NATO’s security assistance and support to Ukraine, including the PURL programme, and Defence Capacity Building programmes with a range of Partner nations.
Burcu is a senior leader with over 30 years of experience in security, defence and political affairs. From 1995 to 1998, she first served as parliamentary assistant of a Member of the European Parliament, then worked in the Council of Europe’s Political Affairs Department. In 1998 she joined NATO’s International Staff as political officer on the Balkans Task Force. In 2003, she was appointed as the Deputy Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General. In 2007 she became the Head of Defence Policy and Partnership in the Defence Policy and Planning Division. In 2012 she was appointed to the Operations Division to lead the Civil-Military Planning and Support team. In 2015 she was promoted to become Director for Preparedness, and in 2019 she was appointed as Director for Operations.
Burcu studied international relations in the Middle East Technical University (METU) in her home town Ankara. She completed post-graduate degrees at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, and European studies programme of the Catholic University of Leuven.