This call comes amid worsening global, intersecting crises and a proposed unprecedented scale up of defense & security spending to be agreed during the NATO High Level Summit (June 24-25) in The Hague. History shows that rapid increases in military spending often come at the cost of inclusive peacebuilding programmes, domestically and abroad, which in effect prevent violence and conflict.
The letter urges NATO leaders and its members to match military investments and budgets with commitments to peacebuilding and human security. Increased militarization and a defense-only approach should never replace investing in gender justice, peacebuilding and humanitarian cooperation. We therefore ask NATO leaders to earmark a necessarily substantial proportion of defense and security spending to scale up the WPS agenda in line with NATO’s 2024 Policy on Women, Peace and Security and renew NATO’s Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security with adequate and dedicated funding through both NATO’s budgets and national allocations.
