In 1994, NATO’s first Middle Eastern partnership programme, the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), was born, along with the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme towards Eastern Europe. The MD was accompanied by yet another Middle Eastern partnership programme, the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), in 2004. Since then, NATO has continued to emphasize the importance of partners. In its most recent Strategic Concept, the Alliance elevated ‘Cooperative Security’ to be a core task. This paper examines the utility and importance of partners – especially the MD and ICI partners – in addressing NATO’s security challenges in the Middle East/North African region. It will be argued that partnerships, though rarely running smoothly, will remain relevant to the Alliance’s security framework for MENA, especially in a time when members of the Alliance find it difficult to amass military capabilities through member-contributions, as demonstrated during Operation Unified Protector.
