Projecting Stability in an Unstable World

The destabilization of NATO’s neighbourhood since 2011, both in the North Africa and Middle East and in the post-Soviet space, has fuelled a reflection about the nexus between Allies’ security and the stability of their neighbours. At the same time, the boundaries between internal and external security have become more blurred, with the wave of terrorist attacks in European cities linked in various ways to the rise of the so-called Islamic State after the collapse of statehood in Syria and Iraq. Such a change in the international security environment has posed the question of what a politico-military alliance such as NATO could do to contribute to project stability beyond its borders. Answering this question implies a threefold reflection on what is stability and how to achieve it, on the challenges and opportunities of coordination with other international organizations, as well as on the issues and possibilities in the interaction with NGO and local stakeholders.
The academic workshop organized in Bologna on May 10-11, 2017, was meant to reflect on NATO’s approach to stability, and what this implies for the relations with its neighbouring countries, in both conceptual and operational terms.

Result of the fifth academic event organised by the NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), the University of Bologna and the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Bologna, 10-11 May 2017.