Researcher
Jenny Lorentzen
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Summary
Jenny Lorentzen is a Senior Research Fellow in the Research Group for Peace, Conflict and Development.
Her main areas of expertise are the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, norm diffusion and Mali. She conducts research on a range of issues related to the WPS agenda, such as women’s inclusion in peace negotiations and -processes, UN peacekeeping, security sector reform, mediation, and women’s roles in preventing and countering violent extremism.
Lorentzen holds a PhD in Political Science from Lund University, and a MSc in International Relations from NMBU/NUPI. During her PhD, Lorentzen was based at the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security. Her PhD research on ‘Normative Encounters between the “Global” and the “Local”: Women, Peace and Security in Mali and Rwanda’ (2020), explored the processes that take place when global gender equality norms embedded in the Women, Peace and Security agenda are promoted in societies transitioning from war to peace.
Before joining NUPI, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the “Gendered Militaries” project at the Department of Political Science, Lund University. There, she conducted research on how international and Malian actors promote and/or contest different ideas of gender in reform of the Military/Security Sector, and on women’s participation in the peace process in Mali.
Lorentzen’s research has been published in international peer-reviewed academic journals such as International Affairs, the Journal of Modern African Studies, Swiss Political Science Review, and Third World Thematics. Lorentzen is a member of the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) International Research Working Groups for the period 2023–2027.
Expertise
Education
2020 PhD in Political Science, Lund University
2012 MSc in International Relations, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)/Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI)
2009 BA in Asian and African Studies, University of Oslo
Work Experience
2023- Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI)
2021-2023 Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Political Science, Lund University
2015-2020 Doctoral Researcher, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) & Department of Political Science, Lund University
2012-2015 Research Assistant, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
Aktivitet
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Clear all filtersImproving the impact of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and enhancing the synergy of the Peacebuilding Architecture - Input Paper for the 2025 (...
The United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture – consisting of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) and the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) - was established in 2005. In 2025, 20 years after the PBA was established, the Architecture will undergo a review. This Input Paper, by researchers from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), serves as an input to this review. It is informed by NUPI’s research on peacebuilding and related areas, including the research undertaken in support of the previous 5-, 10- and 15-year reviews of the Peacebuilding Architecture. The main challenge that has consistently been identified over the years, including in previous reviews of the Peacebuilding Architecture, is the perceived lack of impact and relevance of the Peacebuilding Commission. In our assessment, the Peacebuilding Commission’s attention to countries and regions are too ad hoc and fleeting to generate meaningful information and analysis. This is one of the main areas that we single out for improvement. This input paper therefore focuses on providing a set of practical recommendations for how the impact of the Peacebuilding Commission can be improved, and how the synergies of the Peacebuilding Architecture can be enhanced.
Women, Peace and Security in MONUSCO: Trends, Lessons and Emerging Practices
For nearly 25 years, the United Nations (UN) has had a peacekeeping mission deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) was deployed in 1999. The deployment of MONUC coincided with an evolution taking place in the UN Security Council regarding the centrality of women’s political participation in peace processes and the importance of considering women’s protection needs as part of the maintenance of international peace and security. The adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 and the establishment of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the year 2000 would have an instrumental impact on the mandates of UN peacekeeping missions, including those deployed in the DRC over the following two decades. This report examines how MONUSCO has worked to implement the WPS dimensions of its mandate in the period 2010 to 2021. Assessing the approach to the mandate and its more recent implementation offers insights into the contribution and limitations of UN peacekeeping when it comes to advancing women’s protection and meaningful participation in a conflict-affected environment. MONUSCO’s approach to WPS has evolved in the period under study. The mandate had a rather narrow understanding of WPS at the outset, with provisions to address violence and threats towards women, reflective of the insecurity and gendered threats within the DRC. These threats have remained, as have more comprehensive provisions in the mandate to address them, but the mandate has also evolved in recent years to include a more substantive focus on women’s participation in conflict prevention and political processes. The mission has developed a range of innovative practices targeted at improving women’s security and equality in the country, as part of the WPS provisions in MONUSCO’s mandate. These have included developing a women mediators’ network, mapping security threats to women, supporting initiatives to address discriminatory media coverage, and implementing positive masculinity programmes. This report offers recommendations to MONUSCO, UN Headquarters, the Security Council and Member States, troop- and police-contributing countries (T/PCCs), and the national authorities when it comes to strengthening the implementation of the WPS aspects of the mission’s mandate in the DRC, with wider lessons for other UN peacekeeping missions in terms of their approach to WPS.
Three new projects to NUPI
PODCAST: Making Gender Great Again?
Gendering Security Sector Reform through Capacity Building? The MINUSMA Specialized Police Team on Crime Scene Management
A key element of international peacebuilding efforts is support to reform of the security sector in conflict-affected states, for example through capacity building. From 2019 to 2022, a Norwegian-led police team provided capacity building in crime scene management to Malian security forces as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The Norwegian officers organized courses and acted as mentors for the Malian officers. This article uses this case from MINUSMA to study how external support to reform can help promote gender perspectives in the security sector in conflict-affected countries. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda call on UN member states to contribute to increasing women’s representation and the integration of gender perspectives in UN peace operations. Despite these political frameworks, the gender perspective is often ignored in practice when such support is offered. The analysis shows that the Norwegian officers worked actively to promote gender equality and women's participation, even though this was not a central part of the project, and without references to resolution 1325 or women or gender perspectives in the project document. Instead, the officers pointed to how promoting women's participation and gender equality are a part of “the way we work” (in Norway), as well as MINUSMA's mandate as the basis for this work. Feminist research distinguishes between a traditional and transformative approach to working with gender and security sector reform, where a traditional approach involves working within existing structures to, for example, increase women's participation or for women to receive the same type of training or capacity. A transformative approach, on the other hand, will involve taking a closer look at these structures, and looking at how women's roles in the security sector are affected by societal, cultural and religious norms. The article finds that the work has mainly relied on traditional understandings of gender, and that the opportunities for capacity building to contribute to deeper changes in the security sector are therefore limited. The findings thus further indicate that individual officers can do a lot to promote women's participation and gender perspectives, but deeper transformation of the security sector will probably require action at a more structural level.
Research group for Peace, Conflict and Development
Research group for Peace, Conflict and Development
Support to UN Peace Operations: Ensuring More Effective UN Peace Operations (UNPO)
The aim of the project is to strengthen the ability of UN peacekeeping and other peace operations to respond to global security challenges, adapt to a changing global order, and continue contributing ...