Before retiring in 2023, Michael Rühle served 32 years in NATO’s International Staff. He acted as speechwriter for six NATO Secretaries-General, Deputy Head of the Secretary-General’s Policy Planning Unit and Head of Climate and Energy Security. He also led the development of NATO’s responses to hybrid threats.

Before joining NATO's International Staff in 1991, he worked at the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation in Germany, and was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in Washington, DC.

He holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Bonn in Germany and has published numerous articles and book chapters on transatlantic security issues.