Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Biographic Data
| ID | 4096518 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jasmine-Kim Westendorf |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jasmine-Kim |
| FAMILY NAME | Westendorf |
| SIGNATURE | WESTENDORF J |
| AFFILIATIONS | La Trobe University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1543-0719 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 27 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Elusive accountability
This article investigates the governance of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers and aid workers. We argue that efforts to prevent and address SEA reflect a confluence of structural-bias feminism and governance feminism, whereby a focus on sexual harm and consensus on the importance of criminal accountability have been institutionalized, with counterproductive consequences. What feminist and bureaucratic impulses drive these effort…
Troubling masculinities
This article reflects on my political and methodological choices around interviews and the empirical insights they have yielded into the causes and consequences of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA). I explore a feminist, relational approach that pursues generative, collaborative discussions with interlocutors during which inquiry and analysis are co-developed. I discuss how this approach created better spaces for collaborative dialo…
Sex on mission
This article critically reflects on twenty years of efforts to prevent and punish sexual exploitation by peacekeepers and humanitarian actors through the UN's zero-tolerance policy (‘the Bulletin’). I trace the assumptions and motivations that underpin the Bulletin's framing of (un)acceptable sex and investigate the operational and normative implications of its strong discouragement of sexual relationships with beneficiaries. I argue that, by con…
A PROBLEM of Rules
Twenty years ago, the UN adopted a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by its personnel. After prohibiting sex with children and the exchange of sex for “cash, food and things,” it “strongly discourages” sexual relationships with beneficiaries because “they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics” and undermine the UN’s credibility and integrity. Taking inspiration from the critical feminist project of understandin…
Safeguarding Sex
This paper is about the intersection of technological utopianism with the safeguarding rush in international aid and the DNA imaginations that it has given rise to. It explores the implications of the centering of DNA technology in efforts to prevent and punish sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and asks what types of accountability DNA approaches yield. The article examines the discursive power of DNA imaginaries in shaping the politic…
Violating Peace
This book investigates sexual misconduct by military peacekeepers and abuses perpetrated by civilian peacekeepers and non-UN civilian interveners. Based on extensive field research in Bosnia, Timor-Leste, and with the UN and humanitarian communities, the book uncovers a brutal truth about peacebuilding as it investigates how such behaviors affect the capacity of the international community to achieve its goals related to stability and peacebuildi…
Violating Peace
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf's discomforting book investigates sexual misconduct by military peacekeepers and abuses perpetrated by civilian peacekeepers and non-UN civilian interveners. Based on extensive field research in Bosnia, Timor-Leste, and with the UN and humanitarian communities, she uncovers a brutal truth about peacebuilding as she investigates how such behaviors affect the capacity of the international community to achieve its goals relate…
Introduction
Over the last decade, the scholarship and practice of international relations in Australia has become increasingly preoccupied with ‘great power competition’ between its long-term ally, the United
Women in Australian international affairs
This article reviews the participation of and challenges facing women in international affairs in Australia, with a focus on three sectors: the media, the civil service and the academy. We review the qualitative and quantitative data available, and share the results of a number of surveys and scans we have conducted ourselves: of the gender breakdown of undergraduate enrolments in Australian university courses focusing on international affairs; t…
Challenges of Local Ownership
This article investigates whether a ‘light footprint’ approach to peacekeeping and peacebuilding by the international community more effectively addresses local drivers of conflict than the dominant model of large, multidimensional peace operations. It considers international engagement in the Nepalese peace process through the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), and argues that the international community’s approach to local ownership becam…
Peace negotiations in the political marketplace
This article investigates the implications of women’s exclusion for the nature and durability of peace processes, and whether factors that undermine peace consolidation post-settlement might be prevented through more inclusive peacemaking. It examines the Sudan-South Sudan peace process that produced the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the roles women played in peacemaking and their exclusion from official negotiations, and the sources of ins…
Sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations
In 2013, a UN investigation declared sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) ‘the most significant risk to UN peacekeeping missions’. The exploitation and abuse of women and children by peacekeepers, aid workers, private contractors and other interveners has become ubiquitous to peace operations, ranging from rape to transactional sex, sex trafficking, prostitution and pornography. This article investigates the causes of SEA by interveners, and the d…
Why Peace Processes Fail
Why do so many post–civil war societies continue to be characterized by widespread violence and political instability? Or, more succinctly, why do peace processes so often fail to consolidate peace? Addressing this question, Jasmine-Kim Westendorf explores how the international community engages in resolving civil wars—and clarifies why, despite the best of intentions and the investment of significant resources, external actors fail in their reco…
Add women and stir’
With the changing nature of warfare and the increasing awareness of the specific gender dimensions of war and peace, the international legal framework has been expanded to address the particular challenges faced by women in conflict and post-conflict contexts. This process culminated in 2000 with the first United Nations document to explicitly address the role and needs of women in peace processes: United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC…
Sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations
In 2013, a UN investigation declared sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) ‘the most significant risk to UN peacekeeping missions’. The exploitation and abuse of women and children by peacekeepers, aid workers, private contractors and other interveners has become ubiquitous to peace operations, ranging from rape to transactional sex, sex trafficking, prostitution and pornography. This article investigates the causes of SEA by interveners, and the d…
Women in Australian international affairs
This article reviews the participation of and challenges facing women in international affairs in Australia, with a focus on three sectors: the media, the civil service and the academy. We review the qualitative and quantitative data available, and share the results of a number of surveys and scans we have conducted ourselves: of the gender breakdown of undergraduate enrolments in Australian university courses focusing on international affairs; t…
Peace negotiations in the political marketplace
This article investigates the implications of women’s exclusion for the nature and durability of peace processes, and whether factors that undermine peace consolidation post-settlement might be prevented through more inclusive peacemaking. It examines the Sudan-South Sudan peace process that produced the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the roles women played in peacemaking and their exclusion from official negotiations, and the sources of ins…
Add women and stir’
With the changing nature of warfare and the increasing awareness of the specific gender dimensions of war and peace, the international legal framework has been expanded to address the particular challenges faced by women in conflict and post-conflict contexts. This process culminated in 2000 with the first United Nations document to explicitly address the role and needs of women in peace processes: United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC…
Challenges of Local Ownership
This article investigates whether a ‘light footprint’ approach to peacekeeping and peacebuilding by the international community more effectively addresses local drivers of conflict than the dominant model of large, multidimensional peace operations. It considers international engagement in the Nepalese peace process through the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), and argues that the international community’s approach to local ownership becam…
A PROBLEM of Rules
Twenty years ago, the UN adopted a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by its personnel. After prohibiting sex with children and the exchange of sex for “cash, food and things,” it “strongly discourages” sexual relationships with beneficiaries because “they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics” and undermine the UN’s credibility and integrity. Taking inspiration from the critical feminist project of understandin…
Elusive accountability
This article investigates the governance of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers and aid workers. We argue that efforts to prevent and address SEA reflect a confluence of structural-bias feminism and governance feminism, whereby a focus on sexual harm and consensus on the importance of criminal accountability have been institutionalized, with counterproductive consequences. What feminist and bureaucratic impulses drive these effort…
Sex on mission
This article critically reflects on twenty years of efforts to prevent and punish sexual exploitation by peacekeepers and humanitarian actors through the UN's zero-tolerance policy (‘the Bulletin’). I trace the assumptions and motivations that underpin the Bulletin's framing of (un)acceptable sex and investigate the operational and normative implications of its strong discouragement of sexual relationships with beneficiaries. I argue that, by con…
Safeguarding Sex
This paper is about the intersection of technological utopianism with the safeguarding rush in international aid and the DNA imaginations that it has given rise to. It explores the implications of the centering of DNA technology in efforts to prevent and punish sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and asks what types of accountability DNA approaches yield. The article examines the discursive power of DNA imaginaries in shaping the politic…
Add women and stir’
With the changing nature of warfare and the increasing awareness of the specific gender dimensions of war and peace, the international legal framework has been expanded to address the particular challenges faced by women in conflict and post-conflict contexts. This process culminated in 2000 with the first United Nations document to explicitly address the role and needs of women in peace processes: United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC…
Why Peace Processes Fail
Why do so many post–civil war societies continue to be characterized by widespread violence and political instability? Or, more succinctly, why do peace processes so often fail to consolidate peace? Addressing this question, Jasmine-Kim Westendorf explores how the international community engages in resolving civil wars—and clarifies why, despite the best of intentions and the investment of significant resources, external actors fail in their reco…
Sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations
In 2013, a UN investigation declared sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) ‘the most significant risk to UN peacekeeping missions’. The exploitation and abuse of women and children by peacekeepers, aid workers, private contractors and other interveners has become ubiquitous to peace operations, ranging from rape to transactional sex, sex trafficking, prostitution and pornography. This article investigates the causes of SEA by interveners, and the d…
Challenges of Local Ownership
This article investigates whether a ‘light footprint’ approach to peacekeeping and peacebuilding by the international community more effectively addresses local drivers of conflict than the dominant model of large, multidimensional peace operations. It considers international engagement in the Nepalese peace process through the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), and argues that the international community’s approach to local ownership becam…
Peace negotiations in the political marketplace
This article investigates the implications of women’s exclusion for the nature and durability of peace processes, and whether factors that undermine peace consolidation post-settlement might be prevented through more inclusive peacemaking. It examines the Sudan-South Sudan peace process that produced the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the roles women played in peacemaking and their exclusion from official negotiations, and the sources of ins…
Violating Peace
This book investigates sexual misconduct by military peacekeepers and abuses perpetrated by civilian peacekeepers and non-UN civilian interveners. Based on extensive field research in Bosnia, Timor-Leste, and with the UN and humanitarian communities, the book uncovers a brutal truth about peacebuilding as it investigates how such behaviors affect the capacity of the international community to achieve its goals related to stability and peacebuildi…
Violating Peace
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf's discomforting book investigates sexual misconduct by military peacekeepers and abuses perpetrated by civilian peacekeepers and non-UN civilian interveners. Based on extensive field research in Bosnia, Timor-Leste, and with the UN and humanitarian communities, she uncovers a brutal truth about peacebuilding as she investigates how such behaviors affect the capacity of the international community to achieve its goals relate…
Introduction
Over the last decade, the scholarship and practice of international relations in Australia has become increasingly preoccupied with ‘great power competition’ between its long-term ally, the United
Women in Australian international affairs
This article reviews the participation of and challenges facing women in international affairs in Australia, with a focus on three sectors: the media, the civil service and the academy. We review the qualitative and quantitative data available, and share the results of a number of surveys and scans we have conducted ourselves: of the gender breakdown of undergraduate enrolments in Australian university courses focusing on international affairs; t…
Sex on mission
This article critically reflects on twenty years of efforts to prevent and punish sexual exploitation by peacekeepers and humanitarian actors through the UN's zero-tolerance policy (‘the Bulletin’). I trace the assumptions and motivations that underpin the Bulletin's framing of (un)acceptable sex and investigate the operational and normative implications of its strong discouragement of sexual relationships with beneficiaries. I argue that, by con…
A PROBLEM of Rules
Twenty years ago, the UN adopted a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by its personnel. After prohibiting sex with children and the exchange of sex for “cash, food and things,” it “strongly discourages” sexual relationships with beneficiaries because “they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics” and undermine the UN’s credibility and integrity. Taking inspiration from the critical feminist project of understandin…
Safeguarding Sex
This paper is about the intersection of technological utopianism with the safeguarding rush in international aid and the DNA imaginations that it has given rise to. It explores the implications of the centering of DNA technology in efforts to prevent and punish sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers and asks what types of accountability DNA approaches yield. The article examines the discursive power of DNA imaginaries in shaping the politic…
Troubling masculinities
This article reflects on my political and methodological choices around interviews and the empirical insights they have yielded into the causes and consequences of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA). I explore a feminist, relational approach that pursues generative, collaborative discussions with interlocutors during which inquiry and analysis are co-developed. I discuss how this approach created better spaces for collaborative dialo…
Elusive accountability
This article investigates the governance of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers and aid workers. We argue that efforts to prevent and address SEA reflect a confluence of structural-bias feminism and governance feminism, whereby a focus on sexual harm and consensus on the importance of criminal accountability have been institutionalized, with counterproductive consequences. What feminist and bureaucratic impulses drive these effort…
Political science (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Gender, Security, and Conflict (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Peacekeeping (8 works) · Criminology (7 works) · Public Administration (6 works)