How NATO Interacts with the Middle East from Tunisia's Perspective

How NATO Interacts With the Middle East: From the Perspective of the Country (Tunisia)
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How NATO Interacts With the Middle East: From the Perspective of the Country (Tunisia)
In 2015, the United States classified the North African’s country, Tunisia as one of the major Non-NATO allies, thus opening ways for reinforced military cooperation (Fisayo-Bambi, 2020). A decade before this classification, Pentagon and Tunisia witnessed a growing cooperation on securing Tunisia’s long border with Libya and counter-terror training. Along the border, the jihadist groups and other world powers support warring sides in a multifarious war. In May 28, 2015, Alexander Vershbow, NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador, welcomed Habib Essid, the Prime Minister of Tunisia to NATO Headquarters to review NATO-Tunisia partnership. A year before this invitation, NATO and Tunisia had approved Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program aimed at a number of priority areas such as war on terrorism, political dialogue, border security, defense planning, cyber defense, and science collaboration (NATO, 2015). Mark Esper, the U.S. Defense Secretary signed a 10-year military cooperation deal with the country in 2020, drumming support for the United States-Tunisia collaboration over the Libya conflict (Fisayo-Bambi, 2020). Tunisia is a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), a partnership forum aiming to secure and stabilize the wider Mediterranean region and foster good understanding and relations among participating states and NATO allies. Other non-NATO countries in MD include Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, and Morocco (NATO, 2022). As a non-NATO member with NATO collaborations, Tunisia is one of the countries worth studying.
Why Tunisia?
As one of the non-NATO countries, Tunisia plays a critical role as a NATO’s sub-strategic point in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While NATO’s role in the region is indispensable, it is an operationally and politically complex task. There are numerous threats emanating from this contiguous country that requires input from a security organization such as NATO (Tardy, 2022). Nevertheless, the presence of NATO and its impact have been depressed by issues pertaining feasibility and prioritization. NATO is divided on whether it needs to engage with the country and has been restricted to extend its responses to the problems in the region. Therefore, the role of NATO in this MENA region is severely a sub-strategic one (Tardy, 2022). NATO’s MD was launched in December 1994 with the sole aim of contributing to regional stability and security, have a better mutual understanding, and demystify any misconceptions about NATO among member states. Tunisia, among other countries, including Egypt, Israe...