Operation Althea


Operation Althea, formally the European Union Force Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a military deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement. It is the successor to NATO's SFOR and IFOR. The transition from SFOR to EUFOR was largely a change of name and commanders: 80% of the troops remained in place. It replaced SFOR on 2 December 2004.

General aspects

Civilian implementation of the Dayton Agreement is enforced by the Office of High Representative. In 2007, EUFOR had 600 troops from 22 countries, mostly from the member states of the European Union. There are however, additional troops from other non-EU member states such as Chile and Turkey.
The EUFOR's commander is currently Major General Reinhard Trischak of Austria, since June 2019. For this mission, the European Union Military Staff is using NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe as the EU's Operational Headquarters and is working through the Deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, a European officer.
The EUFOR assumed all the missions of the SFOR, except for the hunt for individuals indicted by the war crimes tribunal, notably Radovan Karadžić, former leader of Republika Srpska, and Ratko Mladić, their former military leader, which remained a mission for NATO through NATO Headquarters Sarajevo. The EUFOR does have police duties against organised crime, which is believed to be linked to suspected war criminals. It worked with the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and with the Bosnian Police. The European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina provides political guidance on military issues with a local political dimension to the EUFOR.
, the total force of EUFOR are at 600 troops from 20 countries, including EU member states and non-EU "Troop Contributing Countries" are present within EUFOR.

Commanders

No.StateRankNameTenure
1Major generalDavid Leakey2 December 2004 – 6 December 2005
2Major generalGian Marco Chiarini6 December 2005 – 5 December 2006
3Rear admiralHans-Jochen Witthauer5 December 2006 – 4 December 2007
4Major generalIgnacio Martín Villalaín4 December 2007 – 4 December 2008
5Major generalStefano Castagnotto4 December 2008 – 3 December 2009
6Major generalBernhard Bair4 December 2009 – 6 December 2011
7Major generalRobert Brieger6 December 2011 – 3 December 2012
8Major generalDieter Heidecker3 December 2012 – 17 December 2014
9Major generalJohann Luif17 December 2014 – 24 March 2016
10Major generalFriedrich Schrötter24 March 2016 – 28 March 2017
11Major generalAnton Waldner28 March 2017 – 28 March 2018
12Major generalMartin Dorfer28 March 2018 – 26 June 2019
13Major generalReinhard Trischak26 June 2019 – present