Following the UN Lead? NATO's Contested Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Policy

The topic of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) has been a high-profile issue in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations due to well-publicized scandals, which precipitated the development of policy and training. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by contrast only adopted its first SEA policy in 2019, lagging behind UN policy initiatives. Nested within NATO's Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) programme of work, this article focuses on explaining the emergence of NATO's SEA Policy. Drawing from a feminist institutionalist lens, we argue that civilian and military officials within NATO were able to overcome apparent contestation to achieve its adoption by navigating NATO's internal processes strategically. Our original empirical analysis uncovers key strategies employed by WPS officials which served to overcome institutional resistance to the SEA Policy. Drawing on our analysis of interviews and training materials, we also offer new insights on how NATO's SEA Policy and training were designed to address underlying attitudes and beliefs that are conducive to the perpetration of SEA in military operations. The article concludes with the policy implications of our study to strengthen NATO's SEA Policy architecture and related trainings.