Jana Krause

Selected Publications

For a full list of publication, please consult my GoogleScholar profile. 

Books

Krause, Jana. 2018. Resilient Communities: Non-Violence and Civilian Agency in Communal War. Cambridge University Press.

Krause, Jana, Juan Masullo, Emily Paddon Rhoads and Jennifer Welsh (eds). 2023. Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings. Oxford University Press.

Articles 

Buba, Imrana and Jana Krause. 2026. Civilian Militia Formation and Protection Against Rebel Violence: Evidence from Nigeria. Political Geography, 2026. 

Krause, Jana et al. 2023. Civilian Protective Agency – An Introduction. In: Krause, Jana, Juan Masullo, Emily Paddon-Rhoads and Jennifer Welsh (eds): Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings. Oxford University Press. 

Krause, Jana. 2023. Civilian Protection Monitoring in Myanmar. In: Krause, Jana, Juan Masullo, Emily Paddon-Rhoads and Jennifer Welsh (eds): Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings. Oxford University Press.

Krause, Jana and Louise Olsson. 2022. Women’s Participation in Peace Processes. In MacGinty, Roger and Anthony Wanis-St.John (eds): Contemporary Peacemaking: Conflict, Violence and Peace Processes. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Krause, Jana and Erin Kamler. 2022. Ceasefires and Civilian Protection Monitoring in Myanmar. Global Studies Quarterly 2:1, 1-12.

Krause, Jana. 2021. Ethics of Ethnographic Methods in Conflict Zones. Journal of Peace Research, 58:3, 329-341.

Krause, Jana. 2020. Restrained or Constrained? Elections, Communal Conflicts and Variation in Sexual Violence.Journal of Peace Research 57:1, 185-198 .Krause, Jana. 2019. Stabilization and Local Conflicts: Communal and Civil War in South Sudan. Ethnopolitics, 18:5, 478-493.

Krause, Jana. 2019. Gender Dimensions of (Non)Violence in Communal Conflict: The Case of Jos, Nigeria.Comparative Political Studies, 52:10, 1466-499.
| Ethics & Methods Appendix

Krause, Jana, Werner Krause and Piia Braenfors. 2018. Women's Participation in Peace Negotiations and the Durability of Peace. International Interactions, 44:6, 985-1016. | Replication Data

Krause, Jana. 2017. Non-Violence and Civilian Agency in Communal War: Evidence from Jos, Nigeria. African Affairs,116 (463): 261-283.

Krause, Jana and Cynthia Enloe. 2015. A Wealth of Expertise and Lived Experience: Conversations between International Women Peace Activists at the Women Lead to Peace Summit preceding the Geneva II Peace Talks on Syria, January 2014. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 17:2.

Carbonnier, Gilles, Fritz Brugger and Jana Krause. 2011. Global and Local Policy Responses to the Resource Trap. Global Governance, 17:2, 247-264.

• Buba, Imrana Alhaji & Krause, Jana (2026). Civilian militia formation and protection against rebel violence: Evidence from Nigeria. Political Geography. ISSN 0962-6298. 126. doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2026.103497. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Why do some civilian defense militias effectively protect civilians while others fail and seem to only exacerbate rebel violence against civilians? Many irregular civil wars involve civilian defense militias, i.e., informal civilian groups that cooperate with the state military to protect their communities. Despite a burgeoning literature on militias in civil wars, research on variation in militia emergence and protective effects remains limited. Drawing on field research in northeastern Nigeria's Boko Haram conflict, we explain how local variation in militia formation shapes militias' protective effects against rebel violence. We argue that when repressive conflict conditions in state-dominated areas create incentives for civilian violent resistance, a community's collective action capacity, defined by local leadership and social cohesion, determines whether militias are community-initiated or imposed by state forces. Communities with high-capacity form community-initiated militias and maintain social control over their activities, which enables militias to effectively protect civilians against rebel violence. By contrast, communities with low capacity often host state-initiated militias and struggle to establish social control over their members, which renders them ineffective against rebels. Our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of civilian protective agency by showing that the capacities enabling neutrality and nonviolent resistance can also empower communities to form militias that effectively resist rebel violence.

• Krause, Jana; Masullo, Juan & Rhoads, Emily Paddon (2023). Civilian protective Agency: An Introduction. In Krause, Jana; Masullo, Juan; Rhoads, Emily Paddon & Welsh, Jennifer (Ed.), Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings. A Comparative Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780192866714. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter introduces the concept of civilian protective agency. It begins with an overview of the origins of this diverse field of scholarship and practice, and then sketches the conceptual terrain. We define civilian protective agency, examine its constituent components (‘civilian’, ‘protection’, and ‘agency’), distinguish it from cognate terms, and situate the concept within the broader literature. We identify four broad inter-related yet distinct forms of civilian protective agency: evasion, resistance, rescue, and adaptation, and review the different factors and conditions that enable the emergence of civilian protective agency, as well as some of its consequences for the protection of civilians—what we refer to as the ‘protection dividend’. Finally, we provide an overview of the volume.

• Krause, Jana & Olsson, Louise (2022). Women’s Participation in Peace Processes. In MacGinty, Roger & Wanis-St.John, Anthony (Ed.), Contemporary Peacemaking Peace Processes, Peacebuilding and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783030829612. p. 103–119. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-82962-9_6. Full text in Research Archive
• Krause, Jana & Kamler, Erin (2022). Ceasefires and Civilian Protection Monitoring in Myanmar. Global Studies Quarterly. 2(1), p. 1–12. doi: 10.1093/isagsq/ksac005. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Civilian ceasefire and civilian protection monitoring are often seen as innovative peacekeeping and protection mechanisms in conflict zones difficult to access for international actors. However, the literature on civilian monitoring and its impact is sparse. In many conflicts, civilians organize to protect themselves. Research into civilian agency and protection has shown that civilian capacity to self-protect and conflict conditions determine whether protective civilian agency can be effective. We analyse whether civilian protection monitoring can positively impact the protection of civilians, focusing on Myanmar, where donors have funded civilian ceasefire monitoring efforts that are inclusive of a strong civilian protection component. We argue that despite failed ceasefires in Myanmar, the nurturing of civilian monitoring networks, i.e. supporting civilian capacity, had a positive - albeit limited - impact on civilian protection. Monitors adapted knowledge from international ceasefire monitoring trainings to their reality on the ground and implemented civilian protection monitoring. Yet, conflict conditions seriously limited protection monitoring and posed grave security challenges to monitors and communities. We conclude that in conflict situations where armed actors show little sensitivity to civilian preferences and commitment to respecting human rights, the need for civilian protection is high while the protective potential of civilian monitoring is limited as long as armed groups’ incentives to better protect civilians remain weak.

• Krause, Jana (2021). The Ethics of Ethnographic Methods in Conflict Zones. Journal of Peace Research. ISSN 0022-3433. doi: 10.1177/0022343320971021. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article examines the ethics of using ethnographic methods in contemporary conflict zones. Ethnographic research is an embodied research practice of immersion within a field site whereby researchers use ethnographic sensibility to study how people make sense of their world. Feminist, conflict and peacebuilding scholars who research vulnerable populations and local dynamics especially value ethnographic approaches for their emphasis on contextual understanding, human agency, egalitarian research relationships and researcher empathy. While immersion leads to knowledge that can hardly be replaced by using more formal approaches, it also elicits ethical dilemmas. These arise not only from the specific research context but also from who the researcher is and how they may navigate violent and often misogynous settings. I argue that many dilemmas may and perhaps should not be overcome by researcher skill and perseverance. Instead, ethical challenges may lead researchers to adopt limited and/or uneven immersion in their field site, not as failed or flawed ethnography but as an ethical research strategy that incorporates ethnographic sensibility to a varying extent. Examining why researchers may opt for limited and uneven immersion is important because in conflict research, stereotypes of the intrepid (male) researcher with a neutral gaze still tend to mute open discussions of how gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, class and other background factors inevitably shape immersion. This article seeks to contribute to creating discursive space for these conversations, which are vital for researchers to analyse, reflect and write from the position of a ‘vulnerable observer’ and incorporate greater transparency in the discussion of research findings.

• Krause, Jana (2020). Restrained or constrained? Elections, communal conflicts, and variation in sexual violence. Journal of Peace Research. ISSN 0022-3433. 57(1), p. 185–198. doi: 10.1177/0022343319891763. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Anecdotal evidence suggests that sexual violence varies significantly across cases of election violence and communal conflicts but systematic research is scarce. Post-election violence is particularly likely if electoral mobilization further polarizes longstanding communal conflicts and political elites do not instruct security forces to intervene decisively. I comparatively analyse two prominent cases of post-election violence in Kenya (2007/8) and Nigeria (2008) that exhibit stark variation in sexual violence. Patrimonial networks and norms of violent masculinity that increase the probability of (gang) rape were present in both cases and do not explain variation. Civil war research has identified three explanations for the variation in sexual violence: situational constraints; ordered sexual violence or restraint; and bottom-up dynamics of sexual violence or restraint. I examine these for the context of post-election violence. I argue that the type of communal conflict triggered by electoral mobilization explains variation in sexual violence. In Kenya, pogroms of a majority group against a minority allowed for the time and space to perpetrate widespread sexual violence while in Nigeria, dyadic clashes between similarly strong groups offered less opportunity but produced a significantly higher death toll. These findings have important implications for preventing election violence. They demonstrate that civilian vulnerability is gendered and that high levels of sexual violence do not necessarily correspond to high levels of lethal violence. Ignoring sexual violence means underestimating the real intensity of conflict and its impact on the political process.

• Krause, Jana (2019). Gender Dimensions of (Non)Violence in Communal Conflict: The Case of Jos, Nigeria. Comparative Political Studies. ISSN 0010-4140. 52(10), p. 1499–1499. doi: 10.1177/0010414019830722. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Peacebuilding is more likely to succeed in countries with higher levels of gender equality, but few studies have examined the link between subnational gender relations and local peace and, more generally, peacebuilding after communal conflict. This article addresses this gap. I examine gender relations and (non)violence in ethno-religious conflict in the city of Jos in central Nigeria. Jos and its rural surroundings have repeatedly suffered communal clashes that have killed thousands, sometimes within only days. Drawing on qualitative data collected during fieldwork, I analyze the gender dimensions of violence, nonviolence, and postviolence prevention. I argue that civilian agency is gendered. Gender relations and distinct notions of masculinity can facilitate or constrain people’s mobilization for fighting. Hence, a nuanced understanding of the gender dimensions of (non)violence has important implications for conflict prevention and local peacebuilding.

• Krause, Jana (2019). Stabilization and Local Conflicts: Communal and Civil War in South Sudan. Ethnopolitics. ISSN 1744-9057. 18(5), p. 493–493. doi: 10.1080/17449057.2019.1640505. Full text in Research Archive
• Krause, Jana (2016). Non-Violence and Civilian Agency in Communal War: Evidence from Jos, Nigeria. African Affairs. ISSN 0001-9909. doi: 10.1093/afraf/adw068. Full text in Research Archive
• Krause, Jana & Enloe, Cynthia (2015). A Wealth of Expertise and Lived Experience. International Feminist Journal of Politics. ISSN 1461-6742. 17(2), p. 338–338. doi: 10.1080/14616742.2015.1014256. Full text in Research Archive

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• Krause, Jana; Masullo, Juan; Rhoads, Emily Paddon & Welsh, Jennifer (2023). Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings. A Comparative Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192866714. 288 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Krause, Jana (2018). Resilient Communities. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108675079. doi: 10.1017/9781108675079. Full text in Research Archive

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• Krause, Jana; Masullo, Juan; Rhoads, Emily Paddon & Welsh, Jennifer (2024). Response to Ashley Jackson’s Review of Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings. Civil Wars. ISSN 1369-8249. 26(1), p. 222–227. doi: 10.1080/13698249.2024.2339645. Full text in Research Archive
• Krause, Jana (2023). Civilian Protection Monitoring in War and Ceasefire Contexts: Evidence from Myanmar’s Kachin and Karen States. In Krause, Jana; Masullo, Juan; Rhoads, Emily Paddon & Welsh, Jennifer (Ed.), Civilian Protective Agency in Violent Settings. A Comparative Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780192866714. Full text in Research Archive
• Krause, Jana (2017). Protective Civilian Agency in War: Emergence, Repertoires, Impact and Legacies. Full text in Research Archive
• Toscano, Leonor; Krause, Jana; Klaus, Kathleen & Olsson, Louise (2026). “In Peace Committees, the Women Have Broken the Chains”: How Hybrid Institutions Shape Women's Agency in Local Peacebuilding. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Women’s participation in all aspects of peacemaking has received significant scholarly and policy attention, especially in the aftermath of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, commonly known as the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. At the same time, scholars and practitioners have emphasised the importance of addressing local conflict dynamics and of bringing local actors and their practices and knowledge to the foreground. In line with this development, local institutions like local peace committees (LPCs), which can be formalised under a peacebuilding architecture, have become more prominent in conflict affected societies. While significant progress has been made in understanding how women contribute to formal peace process and negotiations, less attention has been paid to women’s inclusion and agency in local peacebuilding. We also know little about how women exercise agency within LPCs and about how the institutional character of these shapes what women can do. This dissertation examines how women exercise peacebuilding agency in Kenya's institutionalised peacebuilding architecture, with a particular focus on LPCs. It poses two research questions: how do women exercise agency and contribute to local peacebuilding in Kenya, particularly in LPCs? And how does the hybrid character of LPCs shape their participation and impact? The central argument is that women's peacebuilding agency is institutionally mediated by the hybrid character of LPCs. Because the latter are positioned between state authority, local community, and international norms, this shapes women’s agency via two interconnected mechanisms. The first concerns costs and benefits of participation, because while this hybrid institutional setting grants women access to training, WPS frameworks, and cross-county networks, it simultaneously imposes important material and social costs that not all women can equally bear. The second concerns the political conditions that govern how the convergence of actors in this hybrid system plays out in, specifically the quality of local cooperation and the degree and quality of state interference. Together, these mechanisms produce a specific configuration of opportunities and constraints that shapes the forms agency can take. The thesis empirically maps how women respond to this configuration by enacting multiple modalities of agency. The dissertation consists of three articles that centre the experiences of women in and outside the LPC structure. Article 1 examines how the institutional structure of LPCs and Kenya's growing illiberal approach to peacebuilding shape women members' participation and agency. Article 2 explores women's role as custodians of conflict-sensitive information and shows that their capacity to leverage this resource depends on local conditions that determine whether women's contributions elicit response. Article 3 shifts focus to women outside the architecture, namely to residents of informal settlements in Nairobi and Mombasa and shows that access and trust barriers produced by the state's dual role as formaliser of peace institutions and agent of everyday violence contributes to a legitimacy gap whereby local committees remain socially remote. Women thus turn to informal alternatives. The dissertation makes important empirical and theoretical contributions to existing knowledge. Empirically, it leverages novel material and a qualitative account of women's participation in Kenya’s peacebuilding architecture and brings women insiders and outsiders into the same analytical frame. Theoretically, the thesis theorises two concrete mechanisms through which the hybrid character of LPCs mediates women's agency - costs and benefits of participation and political conditions – and it also documents women’s modalities of agency, what they do in response to this configuration of opportunities and constraints created by hybridity. The thesis also shows that when LPCs become institutionalised and when the state is one of the actors converging in this hybrid institutional logic, this can have important consequences for women because the state is often implicated in the conflict dynamics that LPCs are supposed to address.

• Drange, Bård; Binningsbø, Helga Malmin; Jensenius, Francesca Refsum; Strand, Håvard & Krause, Jana (2023). Colombia’s relentless pursuit of justice: Wartime abuses, dynamics of violence, and justice outcomes. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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