This paper illustrates the results of a research project on the newly found role of NATO in the Gulf and elaborates on the possibility of the rise of a new security architecture there. The project is theoretically grounded on recent scholarship on international relations and security studies. The research questions are: What were NATO motives behind its involvement in the Gulf? Did NATO contribute to the achievement of a new security architecture there? How were NATO involvement and its public diplomacy efforts received in the GCC countries? The method employed in the research project focused extensively on structured interviews with NATO, GCC and Iranian officials conducted in Europe, North America and the Gulf. This supplements the analysis of internal working documents and reports. The paper concludes that in spite of its efforts NATO did not alter the security equation in the region and that NATO public diplomacy efforts were mostly viewed with suspicion. Furthermore, it suggests that the motives behind NATO ICI initiative, inaugurated in 2004 were not shared by all its member states. The paper further examines the possibility of the rise of a new, less confrontational, security architecture in the Gulf and it concludes that it depends on the unlikely start of a US-Iran security dialogue, whose possibility is viewed with suspicion by the elites of GCC states.