Publication

NATO has generally not had a strong presence in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, in spite of the region's importance to much of NATO's membership. The Arab Spring has brought new security challenges to the MENA region while financial austerity and political disunity among NATO's membership has hampered the organization's ability. This report looks into how NATO is likely to address the ‘new’ MENA region by investigating how factors internal and external to the Alliance shape its possibilities and limits for strengthening and developing partnerships in order to enhance security and stability in the region. In addition, it outlines some implications this may have for Norwegian security and defense policy.