Deep Dive Recap: Multi-Domain Operations and the Gender Perspective

Subject matter expertise was provided by Squadron Leader Jake Lucas, Staff Officer for the MDO Integration Team and Gender Focal Point (GFP) at NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and Ms Julia Dalman, Legal Analyst Capability and Cooperation Department at the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM). 

Opening the session, Squadron Leader Jake Lucas defined MDO as “the orchestration of military activities, across all operational domains and environments, synchronised with non-military activities, to enable the Alliance to create converging effects at the speed of relevance”. 

Sqn Ldr Lucas highlighted that the role of NATO in incorporating the gender perspective into MDO is critical. He underlined that the gender perspective can help the Alliance understand and operate in complex environments, disentangling male/female behaviours embedded with cultural and societal conditions. Further, the gender perspective helps the intelligence community in its decision-making in operations, targeting, influence and StratCom. Integrating the gender perspective, combined with other human elements, supports the grasp of political, economic, military, societal and legal realms. 

Building upon Sqn Ldr Lucas, Ms Dalman underlined that the Digital Transformation of the Alliance aims at enabling and facilitating the planning and conduct of MDO in a complex security environment. She explained that building on the WPS Agenda and the gender perspective in military activities, missions and operations is critical but extremely complex. It functions as cross-functional, cross-cutting, cross-level and multi-domain, as integrating the gender perspective and WPS requires orchestration and synchronisation with multiple actors and stakeholders. Ms Dalman stated that Sex and Age Disaggregated Data (SADD). could be considered as a strategic asset in MDO, suggesting that the Alliance explores this further. The intersection between MDO and the gender perspective requires complex and context specific analytics and expertise to inform military decision-making and planning effectively and promptly in order to enhance operational effectiveness and contribute to mission success. The Alliance will need to invest capacity and resources to achieve a full and successful integration of WPS and the gender perspective into MDO. 

Ms Dalman explained that gender analysis is the systemic gathering and examination of information relating to gender differences and social relations between men and women which allows us to identify and understand gender inequalities. At its core, MDO refers to the push for NATO to orchestrate military activities across all operating domains and environments, enabling the Alliance to create desired outcomes at the right time and space. She highlighted that this will enable NATO’s Military Instrument of Power to prepare, plan, orchestrate and execute coordinate activities in collaboration with other stakeholders and actors associated with the Alliance. By doing so, this concept will deliver tailored options that build an advantage in shaping, contesting and fighting. 

The Deep Dive Session shed light on the need to make the gender perspective a more integral part of Multi Domain operations. NATO is still in the process of adapting to this new concept of military approach. However, the new Policy on Women, Peace and Security endorsed at the 2024 Washington Summit can shape the way ahead with its mandate of operationalizing the gender perspective in all of NATO’s core tasks and shape a gender-responsive leadership for the Alliance.