Description
The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has underscored the relevance of Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and a gender perspective to defence and deterrence. From the targeted use of sexual and gender-based violence, to the highly gendered disinformation campaign Russia is waging more broadly, to the impact on different communities within and beyond Ukraine. This gendered reality is reflected in the update to NATO’s Strategic Concept (2022), which for the first time refers to Women, Peace, and Security. Yet, there are challenges to translating a gender perspective into defence and the military. Drawing upon a roundtable discussion with three former Chairs of the NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives (NCGP), this paper analyses the role of the NCGP today, and in historical context, in supporting the Alliance’s WPS work. It foregrounds the role of the Committee since senior military women first started organising at NATO in the 1960s, its formal recognition in the 1970s, to its contemporary role in providing crucial recommendations to the Military Committee on the relevance of a gender perspective to defence as well as facilitating the sharing of best practice amongst allies in a changed and changing security context.
