Nina Wilén

Biography

Nina Wilén is Director for the Africa Programme at the Egmont Institute for International Relations and Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). She is also a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO). Previously, she has had positions at Antwerp University and the Royal Military Academy in Belgium. In 2015 she was a Visiting Researcher at Stellenbosch University and in 2017-2018 she was at Lund University. Her research interests include conflict analysis and peace processes and the relation between sovereignty and intervention. More specifically she has been doing research on Security Sector Reform (SSR), the politics of peacekeeping operations and gender and the military. Geographically her research has been concentrated to Sub-Saharan Africa, where she has conducted fieldwork in Liberia, the DRC, Burundi, Rwanda and South Africa. She has published extensively the challenges of peacebuilding and peace operations in a range of international academic journals such as Gender, Work and Organization, Third World Quarterly and Journal of Eastern African Studies. She is also the author of the book: Justifying Interventions in Africa: (De) Stabilizing Sovereignty in Liberia, Burundi and the Congo. Since August 2016, Nina is the Deputy Editor for International Peacekeeping.

Publications

• Challenges with Security Force Assistance in Niger: Understanding Local Context and Aligning Interests Other publications (10-09-2020)
• Context matters – Why Africa should tailor its own measures to fight COVID-19 Africa Policy Briefs (16-04-2020)
• How the indiscriminate virus reinforced our inequalities and the lessons we can draw from this when it is all over Commentaries (20-03-2020)
• No place like home? Postdeployment reintegration challenges facing South African peacekeepers Other publications (27-02-2020)
• What’s the ‘Added Value’ of Male Peacekeepers? (Or – Why We Should Stop Instrumentalising Female Peacekeepers’ Participation) Africa Policy Briefs (13-02-2020)
• Burundi on the brink again? Identifying risks before the 2020 elections Africa Policy Briefs (15-10-2019)
• EEAS Academic Roundtable on Women Peace and Security. Intervention by Nina Wilen Other publications (27-06-2019)
• Belgian Special Forces in the Sahel: a minimal footprint with maximal output? Africa Policy Briefs (14-05-2019)
• Achieving a gendered transformation of the post-conflict military through security sector reform: unpacking the private–public dynamics Other publications (29-04-2019)
• It’s time to build a Gender-Just Peace: Here is how Africa Policy Briefs (14-02-2019)
• The African Union and coercive diplomacy: the case of Burundi Other publications (10-12-2018)
• Peacekeeping: Improving Performance – Dilemmas and Goals Other publications (26-10-2018)
• Improving peacekeeping performance – Dilemmas and goals Africa Policy Briefs (11-10-2018)
• Women now make up almost 24 percent of South Africa’s military. Why aren’t they treated equally? Other publications (1-08-2018)
• Regendering the South African army: Inclusion, reversal and displacement Other publications (18-04-2018)
• The future of African peace operations: from the Janjaweed to Boko Haram Other publications (17-07-2017)
• The world turned away from Burundi, but its crisis is getting worse Other publications (28-04-2017)
• The civilised Self and the barbaric Other: ex-rebels making sense of sexual violence in the DR Congo Other publications (6-04-2017)
• The Rationales behind the EAC Members’ Response to the Burundi Crisis Other publications (25-11-2016)
• Peacekeeping deployment abroad and the self-perceptions of the effect on career advancement, status and reintegration Other publications (4-08-2016)
• African Union Intervention could do more harm than good in Burundi Other publications (5-01-2016)
• From Foe to Friend? army integration after war in Burundi, Rwanda and the Congo Other publications (11-11-2015)
• How to unite enemy fighters into a single national army (and what that means for peace) Other publications (11-11-2015)
• Ongoing violence in Burundi raises prospect of outside intervention Other publications (3-11-2015)
• Burundi’s crisis could spill over borders as armed rebellion grows Other publications (23-07-2015)
• Burundi’s military still key to stability amid political crisis Other publications (2-06-2015)
• Is Burundi still a credible peacekeeper? Other publications (23-03-2015)
• Sending peacekeepers abroad, sharing power at home: Burundi in Somalia Other publications (12-03-2015)
• Security Sector Reform and Liberal State Building Other publications (25-02-2015)