Written Evidence Submission to the International Development Committee Inquiry on Women, Peace and Security
Submitted 17th April 2025
Submitted by Dr Katharine A. M. Wright, Newcastle University
This submission draws on over a decade of academic and policy engagement with the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, with a particular focus on NATO. It highlights the UK’s contributions, identifies current risks, and sets out recommendations to strengthen leadership and accountability.
The current UK National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS builds on earlier iterations by identifying NATO as a multilateral institution key to advancing WPS. The UK has made valuable contributions, such as seconding personnel to NATO and supporting revisions to the Terms of Reference of the NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives. However, the rapidly changing geopolitical context and growing scepticism from some Allies mean that rhetorical support must now be matched by concrete, sustained action.
This submission recommends that the UK take a more proactive and strategic leadership role in advancing the WPS agenda within NATO. To do so, the UK should actively shape NATO’s next WPS Action Plan through seeking membership of the WPS Leadership Task Force, strengthen coordination between NATO and civil society, and lead efforts to integrate gender analysis into security and resilience frameworks. It should build a coalition of like-minded Allies to protect and promote WPS commitments and make greater use of soft power and public diplomacy to signal ongoing commitment. Crucially, the UK should back these efforts with sustained and proportionate resourcing, setting an example by dedicating a clear percentage of at least 0.07% of its defence budget to WPS implementation.
Introduction
This evidence is informed by over a decade of research and engagement on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, with a particular concern with how defence institutions interpret and implement WPS commitments and a focus on NATO. I am a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Newcastle University and serve on the NATO Civil Society Advisory Panel on WPS (UK Representative) and as a member of the Steering Committee, which positions me at the intersection of academic analysis, civil society advocacy, and defence policy. This enables me to provide evidence that reflects both critical scholarship and practitioner insights into the evolving challenges and opportunities for WPS implementation.
The current UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security builds on previous iterations by identifying NATO as a key multilateral institution where the UK should actively support WPS implementation. The UK has had some success in advancing this objective. It has provided tangible support to NATO through, for example, the secondment of personnel to strengthen WPS efforts within both NATO’s military and political structures. Additionally, the UK played a constructive role in the revision of the Terms of Reference for the NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives, helping to strengthen the committee’s mandate and relevance.
At NATO, the UK should continue to actively engage with the NATO Civil Society Advisory Panel (CSAP) on WPS, and specifically the two UK representatives. In particular, noting the following CSAP recommendations for the current and ongoing development of the NATO WPS Action Plan.
a) The UK should take a leading role in supporting and shaping the implementation of the WPS Leadership Task Force and WPS Technical Task Force, as outlined in the 2024 NATO WPS Policy. This includes advocating for and contributing to the development of clear Terms of Reference (ToR) to ensure both bodies are effectively coordinated and equipped to deliver on their mandates.
This includes championing the formalisation of a relationship between the Task Forces and the NATO Civil Society Advisory Panel on WPS. This should include, at a minimum, a briefing on progress at the annual CSAP meeting, and mechanisms for the Task Forces to draw on CSAP’s expertise in policy development, monitoring, and implementation. Strengthening this relationship would reinforce transparency, accountability, and ensure that NATO’s WPS agenda is informed by the experience and insight of civil society actors.
b) As part of the development of the NATO Action Plan, the UK should advocate within NATO for the establishment of a coordinated intelligence-gathering framework to assess gender-related security risks and enhance civilian protection as part of the Alliance’s approach to societal resilience. This framework should include the systematic integration of gender analysis into threat assessments, particularly in relation to hybrid threats, disinformation, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). By improving the Alliance’s ability to detect and respond to gendered dimensions of conflict and instability, NATO can more effectively support societal cohesion and civilian security—core components of NATO’s resilience agenda. The UK is well-positioned to lead on this initiative, leveraging its expertise in Human Security.
The 2024 NATO WPS Policy marked a significant and ambitious step forward in how the Alliance engages with the WPS agenda. Notably, the policy acknowledged the strategic use of gendered narratives and disinformation—particularly those amplified through digital, new, and emerging technologies—as established tools in hostile information campaigns. These tactics are increasingly used to undermine social cohesion in democracies and foster polarisation. The policy also introduced, for the first time, the concept of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV).
The policy was formally endorsed by Heads of State and Government during the NATO Summit in Washington D.C. in July 2024, at one of two official side events hosted by the U.S. State Department and addressed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
However, nine months later, WPS is in a significantly more vulnerable position within NATO. Despite having featured on the agenda at the past four NATO Summits, WPS is set to be excluded from the programme of the upcoming Hague Summit in June, including from the parallel Public Forum. This represents a marked departure from recent precedent.
The current NATO WPS Action Plan expires this year. Negotiations are underway for a successor document, scheduled for approval in October 2025. Yet the shifting stance of the current U.S. administration has created space for a minority of more sceptical allies to challenge and potentially dismantle the WPS agenda within NATO. This makes the present moment a critical juncture for safeguarding the future of WPS in NATO’s strategic framework.
The UK has a vital leadership role to play in navigating this rapidly evolving landscape. It must act decisively to ensure that WPS remains embedded as a core pillar of NATO’s work. I witnessed this commitment first-hand at the January meeting of the Partnership and Security Cooperation Committee, where the NATO Civil Society Advisory Panel was invited to speak. The UK opened the discussion by expressing strong support for the WPS agenda and highlighting its value in advancing NATO’s core tasks
The UK has a long history of leadership within NATO on issues related to WPS concerns even prior to the adoption of the Security Council mandate. In 1975, as part of the UK’s contribution to the UN International Women’s Year, the UK, alongside Her Majesty The Queen, hosted a reception at Lancaster House for delegates of the Committee on Women in NATO Forces. This event was a pivotal moment in the Committee’s evolution, helping to secure its official recognition by NATO. Prior to this, it had functioned informally as a forum for senior military women across the alliance to exchange experiences and lessons. Brigadier Eileen Nolan, and Chairman of the Military Committee, Admiral Sir Peter Hill-Norton played an instrumental role in successfully lobbying for this recognition. In 2009, the Committee was formally re-established as the NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives, with a defined mandate to support the implementation of WPS across the alliance.
While the UK has recently expressed strong rhetorical support for the WPS agenda at NATO, it now has an opportunity - and a responsibility - to translate this support into concrete, sustained action, as it has an established record of doing. This means moving beyond statements of principle to demonstrable leadership in policy, diplomacy, and implementation to safeguard and advance WPS within the Alliance.
a) The UK should actively seek to join the WPS Leadership Task Force. As a long-standing champion of WPS, the UK has both the credibility and responsibility to shape the future direction of the agenda at NATO. Failing to engage directly at this level risks weakening the UK's influence and allowing more sceptical voices to shape the framework for the next decade.
b) In addition, the UK could take a proactive leadership role by convening a focused coalition of WPS-supportive NATO member states to coordinate strategy, messaging, and joint action, particularly in the context of the ongoing negotiations for the new NATO WPS Action Plan.
This group should be distinct from the existing ‘Friends of 1325’ network, which now includes the majority of Allies and functions primarily as a broad, consensus-based forum. Instead, the UK-led coalition should comprise a smaller, like-minded group of committed Allies willing to push for an ambitious and forward-leaning WPS agenda. Its purpose would be to drive strategic alignment, protect against policy rollback, and ensure WPS remains embedded in NATO’s core workstreams.
c) There is also an important role for soft power and public diplomacy in defending and advancing the WPS agenda. The UK should actively use its embassies, defence attachés, and NATO missions to publicly reaffirm its commitment to WPS. This kind of visible, consistent messaging can help shape the broader narrative, signal political will, and counter the growing scepticism about the relevance of WPS within NATO and beyond.
The UK should lead by example by committing at least 0.07% of its national defence budget to Women, Peace and Security (WPS) programmes, and should actively encourage other NATO member states to adopt the same benchmark.
Dedicated, proportionate funding is essential to ensure that WPS commitments are fully implemented and operationalised, both within the UK and across NATO. Without adequate resourcing, progress risks remaining rhetorical rather than real. This investment would directly support the delivery of the UK’s National Action Plan on WPS and reinforce the implementation of WPS as a key deliverable for the Ministry of Defence, as a co-signatory to the Plan.
The UK’s leadership on resourcing would demonstrate serious commitment to the agenda and set a powerful precedent for other Allies to follow.
References
Wright, K.A.M. 2023. ‘Challenging Civil Society Perceptions of NATO: Engaging the Women, Peace and Security Agenda’. Cooperation and Conflict 58 (1): 61–80.
Wright, K.A.M. 2025. ‘Moving beyond a “Hollow Concept”: Realising Women, Peace and Security at NATO under a Trump Presidency’. Defence Studies.
Wright, K.A.M., Matthew Hurley, and Jesus Ignacio Gil Ruiz. 2019. NATO, Gender and the Military: Women Organising from Within. London: Routledge.
Wright, K.A.M, and D Morais. 2024. ‘Realizing NATO’s Women, Peace and Security Commitment in Practice’. Women in International Security (WIIS) Policy Briefs. 2024. https://wiisglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/Wright-Policy-Brief-2.pdf
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