by Michael J. Williams
CIPS Working Paper, November 2009

  • Since 1989, NATO has worked feverishly to carve out a role for itself as a peace-keeping and peacebuilding organization.
  • In spite of these efforts, NATO is not capable of taking on the full array of military and non-military roles required for effective peacebuilding.
  • More effective approaches to peacebuilding will require NATO member countries and others to strengthen their civilian peacebuilding capacities.
  • More fundamentally, NATO members must reach a common understanding of Alliance security priorities including the role of out-of-area operations.

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Michael Williams is lecturer in international relations at Royal Holloway, University of London and associate scholar at the Centre for European Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C.

This publication is part of the project on NATO and the Challenge of Sustainable Peacebuilding.