Is It Possible to Advance the WPS Agenda in the MENA through NATO Initiatives?
Promoting the “Women, Peace and Security” (WPS) agenda is not only necessary for building a more equitable and inclusive society but also is essential for lasting peace and security. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is the least peaceful region in the world.[1] The ongoing conflicts in the MENA pose direct or indirect security threats to NATO’s southern flank. Focusing on the MENA, this article examines recent shifts in NATO’s policy in this region. By examining the intersection of security threats, alliance priorities, and WPS objectives, this study provides insights into whether NATO can enhance regional stability and contribute to sustainable peace through inter-regional cooperation integrating WPS agenda in its relations with the MENA countries.
Implementation of the UNSC Resolution 1325 in the MENA
In 2000, the UNSC passed Resolution 1325, which aims to include women in conflict resolution, and post-conflict resolution efforts, while safeguarding them from sexual violence in armed conflicts.[2] Since then, National Action Plan (NAP) for UNSC Resolution 1325 have been adopted by 108 UN member states.[3]
In 2011, uprisings generated renewed optimism for broader political, economic, and social participation by women. For instance, Tunisia withdrew its reservations to Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2014 following the fall of the Ben Ali regime.[4] Yet, the post-Arab Spring trajectory raised concerns about the sustainability of these advances. The regional focus of the WPS agenda shifted from inter-state to intra-state conflicts where state security increasingly trumped civil liberties, and women’s rights initiatives lost momentum. For example, Egypt has not adopted a NAP for UNSC Resolution 1325, viewing it as irrelevant to its national context.[5]
In the 2000s, both the US and EU integrated women’s empowerment into broader democracy promotion and human rights agendas. After 9/11, the US linked democratization in the MENA to its security interests, while the EU viewed gender equality as key to regional stability in the MENA. Women NGOs that play active role in moving the WPS agenda forward have benefitted from international funding and support for related projects during the 2000s.[6]
Following the Arab Spring, the US and the EU shifted focus toward combating ISIS and migration control, sidelining women’s empowerment. US disengagement deepened under the Trump administration through budget cuts, weakened institutions like USAID and USIP, and reduced support for Track II diplomacy and the WPS agenda. [7] In 2025, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared that the Department of Defence would end the WPS program.[8]
These policy changes particularly dismantling key institution that are central to peacebuilding and women’s inclusion in conflict resolution processes have weakened the support for local gender-inclusive peace efforts in the MENA. This withdrawal was compounded by discriminatory funding practices since the EU priorities shifted toward Eastern Europe after the war in Ukraine (2022), with funding for gender-focused initiatives to the MENA region reduced.[9] The US’s uncritical alignment with Israel further damaged its credibility as a champion of liberal values. Overall, these trends reveal the fact that there is a move away from values-based, gender-inclusive peacebuilding toward narrowly defined security interests in the MENA region. [10]
NATO’s Strategy in the Southern Neighbourhood
The interlinked threats emerging from the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, and the High North underscored the necessity of NATO’s 360-degree approach. Security challenges - migration, terrorism, and regional instability- in the Southern Neighbourhood require cohesive and collective action from all NATO member states. This security understanding compelled NATO allies to reconsider their priorities and led to the launch of NATO’s Southern Neighbourhood Action Plan. The NATO Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood, Javier Colomina, who is responsible for the implementation of this action plan, was appointed.[11]
NATO Southern Neighbourhood Partners’ Agenda for Tackling Security Challenges focusing on regional security, counter-terrorism, cyber defence, maritime security, countering information threats, scientific cooperation, Small Arms and Light Weapons and Mine Action (SALW/MA), and climate change was produced in consultation with Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) partners in 2025.[12]
NATO also supports Mauritania and other Sahel states through initiatives like the Science for Peace and Security Programme. NATO’s cooperation with its southern neighbours also includes its efforts to bring together diplomats and policy makers from the Southern Neighbourhood and NATO partners, as well as civil society representatives, legal experts, academics, researchers and journalists with the aim to explore the evolving security environment and NATO’s engagement with its southern partners.[13]
NATO has already long-standing relations with various partner countries across its southern neighbourhood. Even NATO and Jordan marked an important milestone in their long-standing partnership with the opening of the NATO’s Amman Liaison Office (NLO) in 2025.[14] Almost three decades ago, the MD was launched in 1994 as a forum for cooperation between NATO and Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The ICI, was launched in 2004 as a forum for cooperation between NATO and Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Additional countries and regional organization, such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, also participate in selected activities within the ICI framework.[15]
NATO also has a partnership with Iraq. NATO Mission Iraq (NMI) was launched in 2018 to help Iraqis to fight terrorism and prevent the return of ISIS/Daesh. In 2024, NATO and Iraq launched a high-level political dialogue to further build on the existing cooperation through NMI.[16]
NATO recently speed up all its efforts to contribute to security, stability and peace in the MENA through its partnership. Reinforcing NATO’s existing tools for capacity-building; training and education in partner countries; enhancing the visibility of NATO’s efforts in the South; strengthening NATO’s outreach to regional audiences; deepening synergies between NATO and other organisations working in the MENA became among the responsibilities of the NATO Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood.[17] To sum up, NATO is reshaping its priorities, pushing NATO allies toward greater responsibility in the MENA region.
NATO WPS Agenda
Since its establishment in 1949, NATO has pursued a dual mandate: deterring and defending against external threats while simultaneously promoting the shared values of its member states. Since 2000s, NATO contributed to a reconceptualization of security as an inclusive and value-oriented construct through the implementation of gender-equality policies within its missions and operations.
NATO adopted its first formal Policy on WPS in 2007, followed by the inaugural NATO WPS Action Plan in 2010.[18] Since then, NATO has placed the WPS at the core of its three main tasks - deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security - .[19] Promoting gender equality has become a fundamental element of NATO’s institutional policies and organizational structure. The position of the Secretary General’s Special Representative for WPS was created in 2012.[20] Moreover, WPS commitment has extended to NATO’s collaborative efforts with other international and regional organization as well as with civil society actors.
At the Cooperative Security part of the NATO, WPS agenda clearly states that NATO will engage its partners on WPS through established partnership mechanisms that encompass capacity-building initiatives, structured dialogue, coordinated political messaging, and the exchange of information, best practices, and expertise. Additionally, NATO prioritizes engagement at the intersection of gender and emerging security challenges, reinforced through joint exercises and targeted training activities.[21] The area of cooperative security, with its wide network of relations between NATO and its partners, provides a particular impetus for the WPS Agenda.
The NATO’s commitment to implement Action Plan is reinforced through the Civil Society Advisory Panel (CSAP) that provide strategic recommendations for improving implementation. Under the leadership of NATO Secretary General’s Special representative for WPS Irene Fellin, CSAP is composed of 24 civil society experts and institutions from member states, incuding those working directly in conflict zones. NATO’s CSAP brings expertise from peace negotiators, security actors, trainers, researchers, and those involved in NAPs on WPS and strengthens dialogue with local civil society—especially women’s rights groups—to ensure grassroots perspectives inform NATO’s work. By this engagement, NATO is turning the WPS agenda from high-level policy into practical actions grounded in the real experiences of people affected by conflict.[22]
By inviting NATO’s partners to associate with this Policy, the NATO fosters shared responsibility and collective ownership of its objectives. This system also encourages the exchange of best practices, linking national initiatives such as Action Plans and defence strategies to the NATO’s broader strategic goals.[23]
Conclusion
Great power rivalry and deteriorating security landscape threaten to sideline the WPS agenda in the MENA. However, this does not change the reality of integrating women into security as essential to national security, economic resilience, and sustainable peace. There is a need for more inclusive and gender-sensitive policies, rather than the continued marginalization of women in political and peacebuilding processes.
The rise in conflicts since 2011 has had a detrimental effect on reform efforts across the MENA region—particularly in the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325, women’s participation in peace process, and broader women’s empowerment initiatives. The outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war in 2023 has further exacerbated these obstacles, deepening fragmentation and insecurity. Ongoing conflict dynamics in the region continue to overshadow inclusive reform efforts and hinder the effective implementation of the WPS agenda. Moreover, the persistence of double standards in the application of human rights principles remains a major challenge in the current international context.[24]
Gender balance strengthens NATO’s operational effectiveness and its capacity to safeguard its members shared values.[25] NATO’s strategy and priorities in the MENA region are most likely to be achieved through integrating its gender-inclusive approach to its relations with its partners in the MENA. NATO has financial resources and institutional capacity to support and advance NATO’s security agenda including WPS in the MENA. Stability of this region is number one priority for NATO’s allies located in the NATO’s southern flank. Stability and peace can not be achieved without women’s inclusion to peace process that is only possible through more equitable and inclusive societies.
NATO’s emerging strategic posture in its southern neighbourhood presents both opportunities and limitations for advancing the WPS agenda. NATO’s renewed attention to the MENA region, reflected in the Southern Neighbourhood Action Plan, the appointment of a Special Representative, expanded political dialogues with MD and ICI partners, and capacity-building initiatives across the region, signals a more structured and coherent engagement. The Alliance’s institutionalization of gender perspectives provides a clear normative mandate for integrating WPS into regional initiatives.[26]
Yet the effectiveness of NATO’s contribution ultimately hinges on two interrelated factors. First, NATO’s ability to promote WPS depends on the political will and absorptive capacity of regional partners, many of whom maintain restrictive governance structures and prioritize regime security over inclusive security. Second, NATO must navigate an increasingly fragmented international environment in which the US and the EU have scaled back gender-focused democracy assistance in the region.
Despite these constraints, NATO-led initiatives can still play a meaningful role in advancing the WPS agenda strengthening ties with civil society through the CSAP. It can further enhance local ownership and ensure that gender perspectives are embedded not only in policy but also in practice. In this context, advancing the WPS agenda through NATO initiatives might be possible through an approach that combines security cooperation with genuine support for inclusive governance. If NATO leverages its partnerships to institutionalize gender-responsive security practices, it can contribute to greater regional stability and help bridge the widening gap between global commitments and on-the-ground implementation. In doing so, the Alliance can reaffirm its values and play a constructive role in promoting sustainable peace across the MENA region.
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[1] Institute for Economics and Peace, ‘Global Peace Index 2024’, June 2024
[2] Landmark Resolution on Women, Peace and Security, Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI) United Nations,
[3] Cynthia Enleo, The Normative Framework for Women, Peace and Security, The UN Women, p. 29.
[4] Lilia Labidi, Growing Up Under Colonialism and Male Domination: The Multiple Realities of Gendered Violence, Women’s Political Biographies in the MENAT Region, Viola Raheb & Heidemarie Winkel (Eds.) Vienna: Bruno Kreisky Forum, 2024
[5] Paula M. Rayman, Seth Izen and Emily Parker, UNSCR 1325 in the Middle East and North Africa: Women and Security, United States Institute of Peace, Special Report, May 2016,
[6] Paula M. Rayman, Seth Izen and Emily Parker, UNSCR 1325 in the Middle East and North Africa: Women and Security, United States Institute of Peace, Special Report, May 2016, .
[7] BBC, USAID Officially Closes, Attracting Condemnation from Obama and Bush, July 2, 2025
[8] The Guardian, Pete Hegseth Scraps Pentagon’s Women, Peace and Security program Citing DEI, April 29, 2025
[9] Aylin Ünver Noi, The Report on Women’s Lives and Agency in the MENAT Region – Between Political Activism and Realizm, Bruno Kreisky Forum,
[10] U.S. Department of State, Women, Peace and Security
[11] NATO, ‘Senior Officials from NATO Allies and Partners Gather for NATO’s first Southenr Neighborhood Security Dialogue’, 29 May 2025,
[12] Ibid.
[13] NATO, ‘NATO’s Special Representative for the Southern Neighborhood Visits Geneva to Strengthen Partnerships and Multilateral Dialogue’, 23 May 2025,
[14] NATO, ‘NATO Opens Liaison Office in Amman’, 16 September 2025
[15] NATO, ‘Istanbul Cooperation Initiative’, 3 October 2024,
[16] NATO, ‘NATO Mission Iraq (NMI)’, May 2025,
[17] NATO; ‘NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative fort he Southern Neighborhood’, 16 October 2024, [18] NATO, ‘Women, Peace and Security’, 31 October 2024, ,
[19] NATO, ‘NATO 2022 Strategic Concept’, 29 June 2022,
[20] NATO, ‘Women, Peace and Security’, 31 October 2024, h.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Gina Bou Serhal, Securing Peace Through Inclusion: Why NATO and the EU Must Lead on Women, Peace and Security’ 4 July 2025, TRENDS,
[23] Gina B. Serhal, Securing Peace Through Inclusion: WHY NATO and the EU Must Lead on Women, Peace and Security, 4 July 2025, TRENDS Research and Advisory,
[24] Randa Abul Azm, Becoming a Journalist as a Single Mother, Women’s Political Biographies in the MENAT Region, Viola Raheb & Heidemarie Winkel (Eds.) Vienna: Bruno Kreisky Forum, 2024
[25] Gina Bou Serhal, Securing Peace Through Inclusion: Why NATO and the EU Must Lead on Women, Peace and Security’ 4 July 2025, TRENDS,
[26] NATO PA, ‘Strengthening the Southern Flank: NATO Parlimanterians Examine Security and Migration in the Mediterranean’, 3 November 2025,