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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Katharine A. M. WrightORCiD
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NATO is committed to integrating Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) across all its tasks in the 2022 Strategic Concept and the revised NATO Policy on WPS endorsed by Heads of State at the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, D.C. The NATO Strategic Concept referenced the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda for the first time in 2022. This was a significant move since it elevated a gender perspective from the margins to a more central position in the Alliance’s agenda. The revised NATO Policy on WPS endorsed by Heads of State in 2024 reinforces this. The endorsement reflects the reality that the WPS agenda, and a gender perspective, is all the more relevant as the Alliance returns to a primary focus on deterrence and defense following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.1 Russia is indeed waging a deeply gendered war in terms of the use of conflict-related sexual violence, but also in its broader attack on NATO values, including gender equality, through the promotion of “traditional” family values.This Policy Brief looks ahead to consider the question of what NATO’s commitment to WPS, as outlined in the Strategic Concept and the revised NATO WPS Policy, would look like if it were realized in practice, specifically through the NATO WPS Action Plan due for renewal in 2025. To do so, it engages with how WPS and a gender perspective have been institutionalized in NATO, noting that advances in this agenda have often not taken the “usual” or proscribed route within the Alliance. It is, therefore, an area ripe for innovation in terms of its implementation. The WPS agenda is now in a strong position at NATO with buy-in from its Member States.2 The next step is realizing the strategic vision for WPS’ implementationset out in the revised NATO WPS Policy (2024) through the development of the NATO Action Plan on WPS due in 2025. Such an approach would drive the Alliance’s long-term WPS priorities into the future and ensure WPS’ institutionalization at all levels, political and, especially, military. It must rely on gender-responsive leadership to strengthen existing gender expertise across the Alliance and ensure accountability.
Author(s): Wright KAM, Morais D
Publication type: Report
Publication status: Published
Series Title: Policy Brief
Year: 2024
Pages: 7
Print publication date: 20/12/2024
Acceptance date: 14/12/2024
Institution: Women In International Security (WIIS)
Place Published: Washington DC
URL: https://wiisglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/Wright-Policy-Brief-2.pdf
