NATO Partnerships for Women, Peace, and Security 26 pages, pdf  Download Back

NATO Partnerships for Women, Peace, and Security

Publisher: The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Volume: 26 pages, pdf

Description:

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda is a global, thematic agenda that calls for progress toward gender equality and justice as a foundation for peace and security. It was launched with the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) adoption of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (UNSCR 1325) in October 2000. UNSCR 1325 formally recognized the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls for the first time, as well as the crucial role that women play in all security and peace processes. It also recognized the gendered nature of international peace and security, and established a legal and political framework for incorporating gender perspectives into defense and security policies. UNSCR 1325 called on the United Nations member states to develop strategies to protect women and girls in violent conflict, as well as to increase women’s participation in decision making at all levels, in all mechanisms, and at all stages of conflict.

Since 2000, the WPS agenda has become a broader and more ambitious social movement that engages a diverse group of stakeholders, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). A handful of NATO allies and partner states were among the first to recognize its importance, adopt a National Action Plan on 1325, and begin work toward implementation at the national and then regional level, eventually leading to NATO’s adoption of a WPS common policy in 2007. Implementing UNSCR 1325 initially required NATO to look beyond incorporating gender into NATO’s missions, but also called for the Alliance to transform its own organizational culture. NATO partners continue to play an integral role in advancing WPS implementation by working in coordination with key formal NATO structures like the Partnerships and Cooperative Security Committee, as well as with non-state actors such as the private sector and other international organizations.

As NATO looks to implement recommendations from the NATO 2030 Reflection Group’s report and begins revising or updating its Strategic Concept, this paper argues that the WPS agenda should be core to NATO’s forward-looking strategic objectives. This paper outlines the achievements and the implementation challenges NATO faces, and offers three sets of recommendations for overcoming institutional hurdles, leveraging non-NATO members, and reviving its sense of purpose on WPS. First and foremost, the Alliance should focus on balancing the operational focus with an internal focus, and move WPS away from the political margins and closer to NATO’s core. This requires doubling down on implementation of NATO’s robust policies and action plans and strengthening institutional and financial support for its WPS transformations. Second, NATO should consider expanding WPS cooperation with partners across a range of activities from education and training to capacity building, interoperability, and reform. It should also expand collaboration with non-state partners and civil society organizations. Finally, NATO should recommit to WPS publicly with a renewed sense of purpose and a clear and simple message about the strategic relevance of WPS for twenty-first century security.