Committees & Working Groups

The Interallied Confederation of Reserve Officers, commonly referred to by its French acronym CIOR, represents the interests of approximately 1 million reservists across 36 participating nations within and beyond NATO, making it the world’s largest military reserve officer organization.

Founded in 1948 by the reserve officer associations of Belgium, France and the Netherlands, CIOR is now a NATO-affiliated, non-political and non-profit umbrella organization of member nations’ national reserve officer associations.

The CIOR meets twice a year – in the summer and winter – and they work through committees that examine issues and provide analysis relating to reserve forces. Typical issues of interest include the contribution of reserve forces to international operations, the re-integration of reservists within their respective communities following deployment abroad, the law of armed conflict, the impact of NATO expansion on the Reserves, and employer support to reservists.

In addition to their roles as reserve officers, many individual delegates of CIOR are highly accomplished business and industrial leaders, public servants and academics. They are therefore in a unique position to contribute to a better understanding of security and defence issues in the population as a whole, as well as bringing civilian expertise and experience to the tasks and challenges facing reserve forces in NATO.

The CIOR is structured around a constitution that provides for a rotating presidency, a CIOR Executive Council comprised of vice-presidents of participating nations, key committees and several annual events that promote training, education and professional development. The presidential term is two years in length. Germany will hand over the presidency to Estonia in August 2022.