On Thursday 26 July 2007, General Rookmangud Katawal (Chief of the Army Staff Nepal) gave a presentation on "Security Challenges in Post-Conflict Transition" as part of the Military Leaders Forum.
General Rookmangud Katawal was appointed as Chief of the Army Staff of the Nepalese Army on 10 September 2006. Earlier, he was Chief of General Staff from 10 September 2004 to 10 September 2006 in the rank of Lieutenant General, and commanded the then Western Division in the peak of counterinsurgency operations between December 2003 and August 2004. General Katawal is also 'Colonel Commandant' of his old battalion, Shree Pashupati Prashad.
On 29 December 2001, General Katawal was appointed the first co-coordinator of the National Security Council Secretariat. He also served as the Adjutant General (AG) and the Director of Military Intelligence of the Nepalese Army, and as the Commandant of the Royal Nepalese Military Academy. He holds the distinction of having commanded three consecutive Brigades, two Infantry and one Special Forces. He has also served in the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Suez Canal area, and has been the Nepalese Government's Liaison Officer to the Brigade of Gurkhas of the British Army and Government of Hong Kong, and the Chief Military Personnel Officer of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
A graduate of the Indian National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy, he holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Nepal's Tribhuwan University and a Masters Degree in National Defence from Pakistan's Quaid-i-Azam University. General Katawal is also the Distinguished International Honour Graduate of the US Special Forces Course, and earned the coveted Gideon in the U.S. Ranger Course. He is also a graduate of the Army Command and Staff College, Camberley, UK, the Senior Command Course, India and the National Defence College, Pakistan.
The Military Leaders Forum has been established to provide a platform for international military officials to address some of the critical issues and ideas affecting war and peace in the twenty-first century.
The IISS Military Leaders’ Forum is made possible through the generous support of KBR
