Inside the secret race to become NATO’s next top general

BRUSSELS — NATO’s most senior commanders elect a new leader on Saturday in a consequential vote that will help shape how the alliance prepares for a potential Russian incursion and navigates persisting transatlantic tensions. The alliance’s 32 chiefs of defense staff will elect a new chair of NATO’s most senior military body, the military committee, in Copenhagen in a hush-hush ballot — and choose between two candidates: Germany’s Gen. Carsten Breuer and Canada’s Gen. Jennie Carignan. “NATO is in a very decisive moment and in a demanding spot — there’s a large conventional war raging in Europe and NATO is transforming itself again into a more robust, more European NATO,” said Janne Kuusela, Permanent Secretary at the Finnish defense ministry.