Former Brigadier General Alfonso García-Vaquero Pradal was appointed in 2017 as Special Advisor to Spain’s Secretary General of Defence Policy for Defence Diplomacy, responsible for leading the implementation of the Defence Diplomacy Plan.

In recent years, he has co-chaired more than fifty joint commissions with different nations in Africa, America, Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. Between October 2014 and August 2015, he was appointed as Head of the EU Training Mission in Mali (EUTM Mali) by the Council of the EU. Earlier in his military career he was involved in Sarajevo with the NATO mission IFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to that, he was assigned to the Rapid Reaction Force Headquarters in Madrid as an Intelligence Analyst and joined the 6th Legion Flag in Ceuta, where he was Section Commander. He was previously assigned to the Legion’s Special Operations Unit in Ronda, where he contributed to its creation and organisation.

He is a regular lecturer in different national and international forums and has been awarded various national and international decorations, including that of Knight of the Legion of Honour of the Republic of France.

He graduated as an Infantry Lieutenant from the General Military Academy of Zaragoza in 1981. In 1993 he completed the General Staff Course in Madrid.