Séverine Autesserre  is an award-winning author, peacebuilder, and researcher, as well as a Professor and Chair of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of The Trouble with the Congo, Peaceland, and The Frontlines of Peace, in addition to articles for publications such as Foreign Affairs, International Organization, and The New York Times.

Autesserre has been involved intimately in the world of international aid for more than twenty years. She has conducted research in twelve different conflict zones, from Colombia to Somalia to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Autesserre has worked for Doctors Without Borders in places like Afghanistan and Congo, and at the United Nations headquarters in the United States. Her research has helped shape the intervention strategies of several United Nations departments, foreign affairs ministries, and non-governmental organizations, as well as numerous philanthropists and activists. She has also been a featured speaker at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the United Nations Security Council. Please click here for more details.

 

 

Books

Séverine Autesserre, The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). Updated and Augmented French translation: Sur les fronts de la paix, Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme (March 2023). Japanese translation: Kashiwa Shobō, (forthcoming November 2023)
Séverine Autesserre, Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014). Spanish translation: Peaceland. La Resolución de Conflictos y las Políticas Cotidianas en las Intervenciones Internacionales. Barcelona: Institut Català Internactional per la Pau, (2018)
Séverine Autesserre, The Trouble With the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Principal Articles

Séverine Autesserre, “The Crisis of Peacekeeping: Why the UN Can’t End Wars,” Foreign Affairs 98, no. 1 (January/February 2019).
Séverine Autesserre,“International Peacebuilding and Local Success: Assumptions and Effectiveness,” International Studies Review 19, no. 1 (March 2017).
Séverine Autesserre, “The Responsibility to Protect in the Congo: The Failure of Grassroots Prevention,” International Peacekeeping 23, no. 1 (January 2016).
Séverine Autesserre, “Going Micro: Emerging and Future Peacekeeping Research,” International Peacekeeping 26, no. 4 (Fall 2014).
Séverine Autesserre, “Dangerous Tales – Dominant Narratives on the Congo and their Unintended Consequences,” African Affairs 111, no. 443 (April 2012).
Séverine Autesserre, “The Trouble With the Congo: A Précis,” African Security Review 20, no. 2 (June 2011).
Séverine Autesserre, “Seven Commentaries, Three Debates and One Book: The Author’s Response,” African Security Review 20, no. 2 (June 2011).
Séverine Autesserre, “Construire la Paix: Conceptions Collectives de son Etablissement, de son Maintien et de sa Consolidation,” Critique Internationale 51, no. 2 (April-June 2011).
Séverine Autesserre, “Hobbes and the Congo—Frames, Local Violence, and International Intervention,” International Organization 63, no. 2 (Spring 2009).
Séverine Autesserre, “Penser les Conflits Locaux: L’Echec de l’Intervention Internationale au Congo” (“Understanding Local Conflicts: The Failure of the International Intervention in the Congo”), L’Afrique des Grands Lacs 12 (2008).
Séverine Autesserre, “The Trouble With Congo—How Local Disputes Fuel Regional Violence,” Foreign Affairs 87, no. 3 (May-June 2008).
Séverine Autesserre, “D.R. Congo: Explaining Peace Building Failures, 2003–2006,” Review of African Political Economy 34, no. 113 (September 2007).
Séverine Autesserre, “Local Violence, National Peace? Post-war ‘Settlement’ in the Eastern D.R. Congo,” African Studies Review 49, no. 3 (December 2006).
Séverine Autesserre, “Kongo’da siddet ve ölüm kültürü” (Violence and the Culture of Death in the Congo), Birikim 174, trans. K. Caliskan (2003).
Séverine Autesserre, “The United States’ ‘Humanitarian Diplomacy’ in South Sudan,” Journal of Humanitarian Affairs (January 2002).

Book Chapters

Séverine Autesserre, “Paternalism and Peacebuilding: Capacity, Knowledge, and Resistance in International Interventions,” in Michael Barnett, ed., Paternalism Beyond Borders (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016).

Other Articles, Testimony and Reports

Séverine Autesserre, “Ne désespérons pas, la paix demeure possible,” La Presse, (November 2023). 
Séverine Autesserre, “Global conflicts: ‘Peace Agreements Between Elites Alone Have Never Extinguished Violence,'” Libération, 10 May 2023.
Séverine Autesserre, “RDC, Centrafrique: la faillite du modele onusien,” Radio France, (October 2022).
Séverine Autesserre, “The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World,” interview with Aining Liang, CID Speaker Series Podcast, (October 2022).
Séverine Autesserre, interview with Julie Gacon, Les Enjeux internationaux, France Culture, (June 2022).
Severine Autesserre, interview by Laurence Deschamps-Laporte, CPAC Television Canada, (May 2022).
Séverine Autesserre, “Negotiating Peace the Same Old Way Doesn’t Work. Here Is What Does,” The Monkey Cage, (March 2021).
Séverine Autesserre,“What We Can All Do to Prevent Violence from Escalating in the US,” Political Violence at a Glance, (March 2021).
Séverine Autesserre,“There’s Another Way to Build Peace. And It Doesn’t Come From the Top Down,” The Monkey Cage, (October 2018).
Séverine Autesserre, “Congressional Written Testimony: Resolving the Political Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” in Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives. U.S. Government Publishing Office, Washington, D.C., USA, (November 2017).
Séverine Autesserre, “The Right Way to Build Peace in Congo,” Foreign Affairs online, (April 2017).
Séverine Autesserre, “What the Uproar Over Congo’s Elections Misses,” Foreign Affairs online, (March 2017).
Séverine Autesserre,“Three Flawed Ideas Are Hurting International Peacebuilding,” The Monkey Cage, (March 2017).
Séverine Autesserre, “Trouble in Peaceland,” Foreign Policy online, (October 2015).
Séverine Autesserre, “Peacetime Violence —Post-Conflict Violence and Peace— Building Strategies,” Program on States and Security (2010).