NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a press conference, during NATO's 75th anniversary summit, in Washington, on July 10.Nathan Howard/Reuters
Stéfanie von Hlatky is the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Security, and the Armed Forces and a full professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. Kerry Buck was Canada’s ambassador to NATO and is a board member at the CDA Institute.
NATO heads of state and government are gathering in Washington, D.C., this week to update their strategic priorities and convey the continued relevance of the alliance, celebrating its 75th anniversary with pomp. By traditional metrics, NATO is a robust and successful international organization. Not only has it managed to survive for more than seven decades, it has grown from an alliance of 12 member states to 32 allies and counting (Sweden being the latest member).
What explains the alliance’s endurance?
Pooling resources and defence capabilities is certainly part of the story, and this has been an advantageous bargain for Canada, just as NORAD has been. NATO has combined defence spending of almost US$1.5-trillion in 2024. However high this figure might seem, though, it is the shared values and principles enshrined in NATO’s foundational treaty that keep the alliance on a growth trajectory. If military strength alone mattered, then Russia and China would have an easier time making friends.
Russia and NATO are not in a popularity contest, but if they were, it would not be a close one. However, NATO’s strategic competitors have caught on to the alliance’s appeal and want to fracture it. Russia has been deterred from invading a NATO country to date, but Moscow is hell-bent on challenging NATO’s position as a pre-eminent military organization. The easiest way to do this while engaging in a full-fledged and brutal war in Ukraine is by aggressively attempting to undermine NATO values.
Every day, as Russia continues its devastating war in Ukraine, it is also attacking the rules-based order that has made Canada secure and prosperous since the end of the Second World War. Russia’s horrendous bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8 is yet another grave violation of international humanitarian law. Every day, Russia is more directly attacking Canada and its allies through cyber-attacks and relentless disinformation meant to undermine public trust in our democratic institutions and further polarize our societies. For example, Russia has resorted to technology-facilitated gender-based violence, deliberately targeting women through online harassment and threats, stoking the flames of gender-based hatred in the West in the process. Incidents of women in the public sphere being hounded or antagonized have been on the rise in recent years, which has a chilling effect on women’s political participation. When people in our societies decide not to run for office or quit politics out of fear for their safety, our democracy and way of life are seriously compromised. This must stop.
To this end, NATO leaders endorsed the Women, Peace, and Security Policy on July 10, explicitly recognizing that when women’s rights are protected, countries are more secure. This renewed NATO commitment mirrors Canada’s own efforts to advance gender equality, as we released a National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security earlier this year.
These NATO (and Canadian) values contribute tangibly to lasting peace and stability and are fundamental to the health of democracies worldwide. We know that countries that fail women also fail as states; they are more violent and poorer as a result. Russia is fuelling the global backlash against women’s rights and human rights through toxic propaganda as another way to undercut Western states and NATO as an alliance.
These types of hybrid warfare tactics were explicitly called out in NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept, a capstone document reflecting the consensus of the allies. It notes that “strategic competitors test our resilience and seek to exploit the openness, interconnectedness and digitalization of our nations.” This was further reinforced by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a kick-off event to the 2024 summit, as he stated the abuse of women online “is a threat to the health of our democracies, and we’re taking steps to push back.”
By studying the war in Ukraine, NATO has learned that targeted disinformation campaigns have tracked closely to conventional attacks on the ground. Disinformation is not just operating below the surface of the conflict; it has been fully weaponized as part of this ground war in Europe.
For its 75th anniversary, NATO allies are not only bolstering their collective defences (which are essential to the territorial integrity of all 32 members), but they are also reaffirming the values, principles and ideals that have kept NATO going since 1949. NATO is a political and military alliance – it can only live to be 100 if it prioritizes both defences and values. It has to heed both sides of the coin.