ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) engagement with WPS should not be seen as an anomaly, but rather that it should have been expected. It describes the importance of individuals as champions of gender issues. NATO’s engagement with gender issues has provided opportunities for progress. However, opportunities do not mean linear progress is inevitable. NATO has already sought to address this in the way it presents itself externally but more needs to be done to realise this internally at an organisational level. NATO’s concern with gender issues has evolved as the alliance has taken on a more engaged role in global security. For NATO’s contemporary engagement with gender issues, crisis management and cooperative security have provided particular utility for the alliance. A gender perspective can therefore become a tool to progress pre-existing agendas, rather than to challenge gendered hierarchical structures and support transformative change.
