Projecting Stability to the South: NATO’s “New” Mission?

Abstract

Projecting stability is not a novel mission for NATO. Indeed, two waves of stability-projection can be identified: one, directed eastwards and launched after the end of the Cold War, and another targeting the Alliance’s south, ongoing since the 2016 Warsaw Summit. The chapter argues that although NATO stability-projection eastwards was successful, the Alliance may currently be unfit for the purpose of projecting stability across the Mediterranean. Wider cultural differences, a deeply ingrained wariness of organisations perceived as aligned to US national interests, and the impossibility of rewarding recipient countries’ reforms with NATO membership inevitably make projecting stability to Europe’s South more problematic than previous stability-projection initiatives to the East. Keeping these caveats in mind, the chapter concludes by offering some policy recommendations on how to increase the effectiveness of current NATO initiatives in the Middle East and Maghreb.