Kathleen Marie Jennings

About

My academic work has focused primarily on the institutional, operational, conceptual, gendered, and political-economic aspects of UN peace operations in conflict-affected countries. It is characterized by a focus on how organizational rules, regulations, policy, and practice intersect with and impact the everyday, lived realities of people in and affected by national and international security, peacebuilding, and military institutions. My work is cross-disciplinary, encompassing political science and International Relations, critical peace and security studies, gender studies, and political economy, and uses empirical qualitative methods including interviews, focus groups, discourse and documentary analysis, and process tracing. I have fieldwork experience from Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Haiti.

In addition to conducting research, I have also worked in an administrative leadership capacity as head of the section for Research and Development at the Faculty of Social Sciences, OsloMet -- Oslo Metropolitan University. I hold a PhD (political science) from the University of Oslo, an M.Phil (politics) from Oxford University, and a BA (political science, honors) from Stanford University.

In the period 2022-2023, I served as elected representative for temporary staff to the Faculty Board, the Faculty Research Committee, and the Faculty Hiring Committee.

From January 2023 until August 2025, I was a member of the leadership group at ISS as Deputy Head of Organization and Development.

I am on research leave during the autumn 2025 semester. During this time, I will be a guest researcher at the Center for Civil-Military Relations at the Institute for Defense Studies in Oslo.

Current research

My current postdoctoral project, conducted at the Department of Sociology and Political Science (ISS), NTNU, examines the discourses related to equality, diversity, and effectiveness within the Norwegian military. I am interested in the interplay between these discourses and evolving notions of citizenship and the national interest, and how these diffuse notions concretely translate into organizational initiatives, internal resource distribution, and (claims of) operational effectiveness.

Previous research projects and themes

Previous research projects have focused on gendered peacekeeping economies, primarily in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in peacekeeping operations; disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants; and women's participation in peacekeeping operations. I have also written on the ethical, practical, and methodological dimensions of conducting fieldwork among vulnerable populations in conflict-affected countries. My PhD project, entitled "Blue Helmet Havens: Gendered Peacekeeping Economies in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo", was funded by the Research Council of Norway. I have also led or co-led projects with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Institute of Peace, the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution, and the Atlas Alliance.

Research Interests:

militaries and security studies
international organizations
gender
international interventions, peacekeeping, peacebuilding
qualitative methods
political economies/ peacekeeping economies

Teaching

POL 3801: Rebuilding after war (MA course) (2024, 2025)
POL 2900: BA thesis (supervision and examinations) (2023-2025)
POL 3502: Causes of War (MA course), guest lecturer (2023, 2024)
POL 1000: Introduction to Political Science -- International Relations and Comparative Politics (2023)

Professional experience (select):

Head of Section for Research and Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, OsloMet -- Oslo Metropolitan University (2018-2022)
Senior Researcher, Fafo Research Foundation (2009-2017)
Acting Deputy Director, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF) (2008-2009)
Junior Researcher, Fafo Research Foundation (2005-2009)

Research

My academic work has focused primarily on the institutional, operational, conceptual, gendered, and political-economic aspects of UN peace operations in conflict-affected countries. It is characterized by a focus on how organizational rules, regulations, policy, and practice intersect with and impact the everyday, lived realities of people in and affected by national and international security, peacebuilding, and military institutions. My work is cross-disciplinary, encompassing political science and International Relations, gender studies, critical peace and security studies, and political economy, and uses empirical qualitative methods including interviews, focus groups, discourse and documentary analysis, and process tracing. I have fieldwork experience from Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Haiti.

Citizenship, diversity, equality, and inclusion in the Norwegian military

My current project examines the discourses related to equality and diversity within the Norwegian military, in particular the interplay between these discourses and evolving notions of equality, citizenship, masculinity, and the national interest.

Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping

In Nov 2023, I gave evidence at the high-level Prevention and Response to Sexual Misconduct Stakeholder Review Conference organized by WHO--based on over a decade of research into sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by UN peacekeepers (pub forthcoming).

Publications

2025

Westendorf, Jasmine-Kim; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2025) Elusive accountability: Governing sexual exploitation and abuse under the grip of sexual violence in war. International Affairs
Academic article

2024

Westendorf, Jasmine-Kim; Bian, Junru; Daigle, Megan; Potts, Alina; Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Reddick, Moira; Massonneau, Carl Cecil; Gamhewage, Gaya; Mahmoud, Mohamed Esam. (2024) Sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in humanitarian contexts. Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2024) Power, Consent and Peacekeeping Economies.
Academic chapter

2023

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2023) Peacekeeping Economies. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
Professional article

2015

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
Non-fiction chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Bøås, Morten. (2015) Transactions and Interactions: Everyday Life in the Peacekeeping Economy. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL).
Non-fiction chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) Life in a ‘peace-kept’ city: encounters with the peacekeeping economy. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
Academic article

2014

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2014) Service, sex, and security: Gendered peacekeeping economies in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Security Dialogue
Academic article

2012

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2012) Women’s participation in UN Peace Operations.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2012) Privatizing Peace. International Peacekeeping
Book review
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2012) Governing Disorder: UN Peace Operations, International Security, and Democratization in the Post-Cold War Era. International Peacekeeping
Book review

2011

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2011) Women’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations: agents of change or stranded symbols?. NOREF
Research report
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2011) Luttes armees, rebelles et seigneurs de la guerre: le spectre du patrimonialisme.
Academic chapter
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2011) Rebellion and warlordism: the spectre of neopatrimonalisme.
Academic chapter

2010

Bjørkhaug, Ingunn; Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Bøås, Morten. (2010) Mapping and assessment of national, bilateral and multilateral actors’ support to work against sexual based violence in the Great Lakes region in Africa. NORAD
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2010) Unintended Consequences of Intimacy: Political Economies of Peacekeeping and Sex Tourism. International Peacekeeping
Academic article

2009

Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Nikolić-Ristanović, Vesna. (2009) UN peacekeeping economies and local sex industries: connections and implications. University of Sussex
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2009) The political economy of DDR in Liberia: a gendered critique. Conflict, Security and Development
Academic article

2008

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Seeing DDR from below: Challenges and dilemmas raised by the experiences of ex-combatants in Liberia. Fafo
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Protecting Whom?: Approaches to sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations. Fafo
Research report
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) War in the Great Lakes Region and Ugandan Conflict Zones: Micro-regionalisms and Meta-narratives.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Securitizing the Economy of Reintegration in Liberia.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Kaspersen, Anja. (2008) Introduction: Integration Revisited. International Peacekeeping
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Kaspersen, Anja. (2008) Conclusion: Integration Going Forward. International Peacekeeping
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Unclear ends, unclear means: Reintegration in postwar societies – The Case of Liberia. Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations
Academic article

2007

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) The War Zone as Social Space: Social Research in Conflict Zones. Fafo
Research report
Bjørkhaug, Ingunn; Bøås, Morten; Hatløy, Anne; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) Returning to uncertainty? Addressing vulnerabilities in Northern Uganda. United Nations Develoment Program
Research report
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) 'Failed States' and 'State Failure': Threats or Opportunities?. Globalizations
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) The Struggle to Satisfy: DDR Through the Eyes of Ex-Combatants in Liberia. International Peacekeeping
Academic article

2006

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2006) Armed Services: Regulating the Private Military Industry. Fafo
Research report
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Shaw, Timothy M.. (2006) Dealing with Conflicts and Emergency Situations.
Academic chapter

2005

Taylor, Mark Beaumont; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2005) In Search of Strategy: An Agenda for Applied Research on Transitions from Conflict. Fafo
Research report
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2005) Insecurity and Development: The rhetoric of the ‘failed’ state. European Journal of Development Research
Academic article

Journal publications

Westendorf, Jasmine-Kim; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2025) Elusive accountability: Governing sexual exploitation and abuse under the grip of sexual violence in war. International Affairs
Academic article
Westendorf, Jasmine-Kim; Bian, Junru; Daigle, Megan; Potts, Alina; Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Reddick, Moira; Massonneau, Carl Cecil; Gamhewage, Gaya; Mahmoud, Mohamed Esam. (2024) Sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in humanitarian contexts. Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2014) Service, sex, and security: Gendered peacekeeping economies in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Security Dialogue
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2016) Blue Helmet Havens: Peacekeeping as Bypassing in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. International Peacekeeping
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen. (2018) Peacekeeping as Enterprise: Transaction, Consumption, and the Political Economy of Peace and Peacekeeping. Civil Wars
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2010) Unintended Consequences of Intimacy: Political Economies of Peacekeeping and Sex Tourism. International Peacekeeping
Academic article
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) 'Failed States' and 'State Failure': Threats or Opportunities?. Globalizations
Academic article
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2005) Insecurity and Development: The rhetoric of the ‘failed’ state. European Journal of Development Research
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Kaspersen, Anja. (2008) Introduction: Integration Revisited. International Peacekeeping
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Kaspersen, Anja. (2008) Conclusion: Integration Going Forward. International Peacekeeping
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2009) The political economy of DDR in Liberia: a gendered critique. Conflict, Security and Development
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Unclear ends, unclear means: Reintegration in postwar societies – The Case of Liberia. Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2012) Privatizing Peace. International Peacekeeping
Book review
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) The Struggle to Satisfy: DDR Through the Eyes of Ex-Combatants in Liberia. International Peacekeeping
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen. (2017) The Immunity Dilemma: Peacekeepers' Crimes and the UN's Response. e-International relations
Popular science article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Bøås, Morten. (2015) Transactions and Interactions: Everyday Life in the Peacekeeping Economy. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) Life in a ‘peace-kept’ city: encounters with the peacekeeping economy. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
Academic article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2023) Peacekeeping Economies. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
Professional article
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2012) Governing Disorder: UN Peace Operations, International Security, and Democratization in the Post-Cold War Era. International Peacekeeping
Book review
Jennings, Kathleen. (2019) Conditional Protection? Sex, Gender, and Discourse in UN Peacekeeping. International Studies Quarterly
Academic article

Part of book/report

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2012) Women’s participation in UN Peace Operations.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen. (2021) Gendered Challenges to Fieldwork in Confict-Affected Areas.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen. (2020) Sex workers and sugar babies: empathetic engagement with vulnerable sources.
Academic chapter
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) War in the Great Lakes Region and Ugandan Conflict Zones: Micro-regionalisms and Meta-narratives.
Academic chapter
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Shaw, Timothy M.. (2006) Dealing with Conflicts and Emergency Situations.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Securitizing the Economy of Reintegration in Liberia.
Academic chapter
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2011) Luttes armees, rebelles et seigneurs de la guerre: le spectre du patrimonialisme.
Academic chapter
Bøås, Morten; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2011) Rebellion and warlordism: the spectre of neopatrimonalisme.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen. (2019) Peacekeeping as Enterprise: Transaction, Consumption, and the Political Economy of Peace and Peacekeeping.
Non-fiction chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
Non-fiction chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL).
Non-fiction chapter
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2024) Power, Consent and Peacekeeping Economies.
Academic chapter
Jennings, Kathleen. (2019) WPS and Peacekeeping Economies.
Academic chapter

Report

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Seeing DDR from below: Challenges and dilemmas raised by the experiences of ex-combatants in Liberia. Fafo
Research report
Bjørkhaug, Ingunn; Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Bøås, Morten. (2010) Mapping and assessment of national, bilateral and multilateral actors’ support to work against sexual based violence in the Great Lakes region in Africa. NORAD
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) The War Zone as Social Space: Social Research in Conflict Zones. Fafo
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2017) Tracking Inclusion in Norwegian Development Support to Global Education. Fafo
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2008) Protecting Whom?: Approaches to sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations. Fafo
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Nikolić-Ristanović, Vesna. (2009) UN peacekeeping economies and local sex industries: connections and implications. University of Sussex
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2006) Armed Services: Regulating the Private Military Industry. Fafo
Research report
Bjørkhaug, Ingunn; Bøås, Morten; Hatløy, Anne; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2007) Returning to uncertainty? Addressing vulnerabilities in Northern Uganda. United Nations Develoment Program
Research report
Taylor, Mark Beaumont; Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2005) In Search of Strategy: An Agenda for Applied Research on Transitions from Conflict. Fafo
Research report
Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2011) Women’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations: agents of change or stranded symbols?. NOREF
Research report

Student thesis or dissertation

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2016) Blue Helmet Havens: Gendered Peacekeeping Economies in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Universitetet i Oslo
Doctoral thesis

Outreach

Seksuell utnyttelse i Sør-Sudan – et kjent mønster i det norske forsvaret (Sexual exploitation in South Sudan -- a familiar pattern in the Norwegian military?)

In this opinion piece in Forsvarets Forum, I discuss revelations of sexual misconduct committed by Norwegian military personnel in the UN mission in South Sudan, in the larger context of the UN's policy of zero-tolerance against sexual exploitation.

2024

Conference lecture

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2024) We defend ourselves against all threats: Toxic gendered cultures of exceptionality and mundanity in the Norwegian armed forces. International Studies Association annual conference

2023

Conference lecture

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2023) 'We defend ourselves against all threats’: The Norwegian Armed Forces as an arena of inclusion and exclusion. NEON Annual Conference
Lecture

Kjelsberg, Ronny; Talmo, Tord Mjøsund; Jennings, Kathleen Marie; Masood, Anum. (2023) Temporary Work in Academia: Toward a labor theory of pedagogy. Open panel discussion: Temporary Work in Akademia

2022

Feature article

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2022) Seksuell utnyttelse i Sør-Sudan – et kjent mønster i det norske forsvaret.

2019

Lecture

Jennings, Kathleen. (2019) Peacekeeping Economies and Women, Peace and Security. Book lauch for the Oxford Handbook of Women, Peace and Security

2017

Conference lecture

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2017) A kinder, gentler military? Norwegian politicians’ discursive representations of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Kjønnsforskning NÅ

2015

Conference lecture

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) Bypassing the local in the peacekeeping economies of Liberia and the DRC. Nasjonal fagkonferanse i statsvitenskap
Conference lecture

Jennings, Kathleen Marie. (2015) The peacekeeping economy as a site of local-international interaction. Local Peace Processes in the Context of Global Governance

Språkvelger

Kathleen Marie Jennings