parties). He was commanding officer of the Life Guards Brigade (MekIB 1) at Svea Life Guards (I 1) in Kungsängen from 1988 to 1993. Between 1989 and 1992 Hederstedt was also the Course Director for UN Nordic Staff officers courses dealing with guerilla warfare. He also conducted fact-finding trips to troublespots, including Cyprus, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East (Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon). Hederstedt was commanding officer of the Western Army Division in Skövde from 1993 to 1996. Hederstedt was promoted to major general in 1996 and was appointed International Operations Commander at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters. In May 1997, Hederstedt led a Partnership for Peace exercise in Germany with 1,900 officers from 28 countries. In 1997 he also became military adviser to the Minister for Defence Björn von Sydow and in 1998 he was promoted to lieutenant general. Hederstedt accompanied Björn von Sydow on several trips to Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Congo, Uganda where they met with government leaders and members of opposition parties. During the 1990s, Hederstedt was also on the ground monitoring the Balkan conflict. He was responsible for the Swedish participation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Kosovo. There he met with the leaders of many guerrilla movements and studied their organisations and command structures. Hederstedt reported to the Swedish government from the ground about the war in 1998 and 1999. Hederstedt was appointed Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces on 1 July 2000 and simultaneously promoted to general. During his time as Supreme Commander Hederstedt executed the largest transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces in modern time. This included a change from a defence of invasion to a more flexible response defence, a radical change including a strong internationalization of the whole defence. During 2001 Hederstedt was President in the European Union Military Committee. He was in this capacity the chairman of the chiefs of defence of European Union. During this time the European Union military structure and capacity was formed and developed. During his time as Supreme Commander, he developed and set the basics of a new organisational and technical worked based structure of the Swedish defence. The change of the defence also concluded a complete integration of the military services. A total regional logistic solution was also phased out and was replaced by a solution based on a complete overview which created large rationality and further improvement. Hederstedt