NATO’s Problematic Partnerships in the MENA Region

This essay analyzes how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is likely to address the new security environment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It investigates how factors internal and external to the alliance shape the possibilities and limits for its ambition to strengthen and develop its regional partnerships in order to enhance security and stability there. NATO’s ambitions are likely to be hampered by competing priorities within the alliance, as the as the members are increasingly facing diverging interests and financial austerity as well as domestic political change and regional rivalries in the MENA region.