ABSTRACT
NATO provides an excellent example of a large, diverse multinational collective-defence organisation that has strongly moved forward to foster gender equality in its internal workings and gender considerations in its activities and operations. NATO recognises climate change at the strategic level as a threat, but it has not recognised the linkages between climate change and gender. In its high-level military doctrine, which is important for both interoperability purposes and national resource commitments in its member states, NATO has begun to include gender considerations as factors that must be considered in all its activities and operations. In its subordinate doctrine, progress in this regard has been uneven. Whilst the inclusion of gender considerations is increasingly better developed in guidance applicable to civilian-centric operations, gender is not included at all in the guidance dealing with kinetic operations. NATO military doctrine is largely and necessarily pitched at the joint level, and although its influence on the doctrine of its member states and its partners is significant, the degree of influence will vary from nation to nation. NATO’s approach to operationalising gender is heavily influenced by the Swedish experience, and is ably supported by the educational, training and doctrinal development expertise housed at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations.
