The Initiative for Peacebuilding
The Initiative for Peacebuilding brings together multidisciplinary research, engagement, and education to advance peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the Indo-Pacific region.
Sustainable peace is one of the essential conditions for global security and wellbeing. One way that peace is pursued is through the prevention and transformation of violent conflicts, and the conditions that give rise to these conflicts. Another is through supporting the attitudes, institutions and structures that can sustain peaceful societies.
With deep regional expertise and capabilities which bridge research and practice, the Initiative for Peacebuilding contributes to peacebuilding and conflict prevention by:
- researching peacebuilding in innovative and regionally grounded programs
- engaging with peacebuilding practice and policy from the standpoint of a university-based initiative
- educating the current and next generation of peacebuilding practitioners and researchers
Peacebuilding Research Programs
Strengthening Diplomacy and Conflict Prevention
This research program focuses on the importance of strengthening diplomacy and aid as critical to peace and security. Even before the pandemic, peacebuilding was under-resourced, a situation which was worsened by severe underfunding of diplomacy, aid, and development. With priorities shifting to COVID-19 responses, local peacebuilders fear further reductions in financial support and attention from international, government and non-government donors. Engaging with researchers from across the humanities and social sciences enables a dynamic exploration of case studies from across the region, where partnerships already exist. Example projects relate to: the current efforts to re-vision diplomatic renewal in foreign policy in Australia; the importance of dialogue and relationship-building in relation to Northeast Asia; and professional development modules that can support enhanced policy and practice in conflict prevention.
Indo-Pacific Peacebuilding Practice Innovations
This research program focuses on innovations in peacebuilding and conflict prevention among key Indo-Pacific case studies (such as Myanmar, Bougainville, and Solomon Islands). The program seeks to examine how peacebuilding organisations, states, and non-state actors are working to adapt their efforts to today’s complex challenges. It provides opportunities for reflection and the strategic re-visioning of peacebuilding efforts, while learning from, sharing, and supporting new opportunities to advance peace. An example project involves collaboration with key First Nation mediators in Australia, and Southeast Asian and Pacific peacebuilding organisations, to examine what is working in relation to conflict transformation efforts. This is achieved through the collaborative investigation of partner experiences in Myanmar, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and Central and Northern Australia.
Latest News
Upcoming Events
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Core staff
Dr Tania Miletic
For the past 20 years Dr Tania Miletic has been engaged in policy-oriented research, peacebuilding practice, teaching post-graduate subjects in peace and conflict studies, and supporting actors engaged in peace processes in the Asia-Pacific region.
Tania is a Faculty member on the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies Applied Conflict Transformation Studies PhD program and a former consultant to CPCS from 2006-2012. She has collaborated with Chinese academics in mainland China for over a decade in research and teaching on contemporary conflicts within China.
Dr Jasmine Westendorf
Jasmine's research focuses on peace and humanitarian processes, particularly examining how the international community supports societies as they respond to conflict and crisis. She is interested in the negotiation of power during these processes, the role of non-state actors and women, and how international actors’ assumptions and behaviours affect their capacity and credibility in the countries where they work.
Her current major project, funded by the Australian Research Council, focuses on sexual exploitation and abuse in peace and humanitarian operations; her past work has looked at the challenges to effective international involvement and inclusivity in peace processes.
Dr Niamatullah Ibrahimi
Dr. Niamatullah Ibrahimi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Initiative for Peacebuilding. He completed his PhD at The Australian National University in 2018 where his doctoral thesis examined the dynamics of contentious politics in the context of international intervention and statebulding in Afghanistan from 2001.
His research interests include terrorism and political violence, contentious politics, nationalism and ethnic politics, and post-conflict governance and security dynamics.
Dr Mujib Abid
Dr Mujib Abid is an Afghan-Australian scholar of modern Afghan history, peace studies and political theory. Mujib’s work foregrounds critical traditions that self-locate in the Global South, including postcolonial and decolonial approaches, as well as other traditional and Islamic knowledge perspectives.
Mujib’s PhD thesis interrogated Afghan encounters with colonial modernity, examining modernist power and politics of dissent in Afghanistan. The work is also an attempt at theorising embodied and representational agency against coloniality from the geohistorical location of Afghanistan.
Professor John Langmore AM
Professor John Langmore initiated the Initiative for Peacebuilding concept. Between 1963 and 1976 he worked in Papua New Guinea as a public servant and academic where he led the preparation of the first national plan. Between 1976 and 1984 he was an economic advisor to the Australian Labor Party and proposed the negotiation of the Accord. In 1984 he was elected as the Member for Fraser in the House of Representatives and was re-elected four times.
One of his achievements there was chairing the committee which planned the adoption of the first comprehensive committee system for the House of Representatives.
Professor Joseph Lo Bianco
Professor Joseph (Joe) Lo Bianco is professor emeritus in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. He is a specialist in bilingual education, literacy studies, and conflict mitigation with four decades of work in peacebuilding efforts in various South and Southeast Asian settings, especially Sri Lank, Myanmar, South Thailand and Malaysia. Prof Lo Bianco is series editor of Springer Language Policy books and has published over 40 books and major reports and more than 150 academic papers.
Joe leads the Initiative for Peacebuilding’s research on Peacebuilding and Language, focusing on issues of justice, communication and voice.
Dr Gillian Howell
Dr Gillian Howell is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. Her award-winning research and community-engaged creative practice advance our understanding of the cultural, social, and educational contributions of music-making in places impacted by war and colonial violence. Focused on processes of peacebuilding, dialogue, and the restoration of cultural practices, her highly original research makes theoretical and empirical contributions to the scholarly fields of community music, applied ethnomusicology, peace and conflict studies, and development studies.
Ms Denise Nichols OAM
Denise Nichols has worked in international development, human rights, emergency response and disaster preparedness for over three decades.
She is a humanitarian specialist and practitioner with experience in refugee and post conflict environments in Asia and the Pacific especially in, Thailand, Myanmar, and Solomon Islands. She was deployed to Kosovo in the aftermath of the conflict working on peace building and recovery with women and people with disability. Denise previously worked with Oxfam Australia and other non-government international development organisations as well as AusAID (now DFAT) as an emergency manager, trainer, and as a disaster management advisor.
Mr Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai
Mr Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai is the former Chief Peace Negotiator of the Islamic Republic.
Prior to this role he served as Chief of NDS, Acting Minister of Defense, Head of the Joint Secretariat of High Peace Council, deputy to the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Commission DDR). In addition, he was responsible for the disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) and served as Minister of Telecommunication and initiated the public-private partnership. Before this, he served as the head of an NGO and also as one of the first members of the Human Rights Commission.
Ella Reweti
Ella Reweti is a Research Development Officer in the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Arts, where she coordinates programs for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures and the Initiative for Peacebuilding.
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- Associate Professor Jennifer Balint, Dean, Faculty of Arts
- Professor Belinda Hewitt, Head of School, SSPS
- Professor Erika Feller AO, Professorial Fellow, Melbourne School of Government
- Amanda Gorely, former senior Australian diplomat
- Professor Adrian Little, Pro Vice Chancellor (International) and Professor of Political Theory
- John McCarthy AO, former senior Australian diplomat, analyst, and writer
- Associate Professor Tilman Ruff AO, Nossal Institute for Global Health
- Father Daniel Madigan SJ, Newman College, The University of Melbourne
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From the School of Social and Political Sciences:
- Professor Derek McDougall, Professorial Fellow, SSPS
- Dr Carla Winston, Lecturer in International Relations, SSPS
- Dr Rachael Diprose, Senior Lecturer in Indonesian Studies, SSPS
- Dr Anne Decobert, Lecturer in Development Studies, School of SSPS
- Dr Lesley Pruitt, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, SSPS
- Dr Nerkez Opacin, Teaching Associate, SSPS
- Professor Maria Rost Rublee, International Relations, SSPS
- Connor Clery, PhD candidate, SSPS
- Dr Claire Elder, Lecturer in International Relations, SSPS
- Dr Sara Meger, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, SSPS
- Dr Elaine Pratley, Initiative for Peacebuilding, SSPS
From the School of Languages and Linguistics:
- Dr Ali Albakaa, Honorary Fellow in the School of Languages and Linguistics
From outside the University of Melbourne:
- Ika Trijsburg, Director of Urban Analytics at the ANU Institute for Infrastructure in Society in the Crawford School for Public Policy and Head of Democracy and Diplomacy at Municipal Association of Victoria.
- Dr Siad Darwish, Environmental Peacebuilding and Gender Advisor
- Dr Dolly Kikon, Collaborator on Food Systems, Conflict and Peacebuilding
- Professor Sanjay Barbora, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
- Dr Anouk Ride, Independent Researcher, Solomon Islands
- Mr Soth Plai Ngarm, Research Affiliate
- Dr Michael Main, Research Affiliate, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University
- Dr Dan Evans, Research Affiliate, Senior Policy Analyst at the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy and Defence Dialogue
- Atikah Nuraini, Research Affiliate, Pannasastra University
- Dr Srinjoy Bose, Associate Professor of International Relations (UNSW), Associate Editor of Australian Journal of International Affairs and Senior Fellow at Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute
- Nathan Shea, Assistant Director of Conflict and Fragility at The Asia Foundation
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- Sophia Htwe, whose research aims to develop a better understanding of the role of Myanmar’s civil society organisations in peacebuilding in the Rohingya conflict
- David Lozada is researching the social conflicts within and between social actors who mobilised against president Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’
- Syed Ali Akash, whose central research question examines the complementarity and incongruity between state-led and locally-driven approaches to peacebuilding
- Laura Raicu, who is is researching indigenous approaches to dealing with the psychosocial effects of violent conflict in Papua New Guinea and their impact on peacebuilding processes
- Talal Raza, who is a PhD candidate at the School of Social and Political Sciences. His PhD project focsues on the authoritarian use of digital technologies for political control in South Asia/Pakistan.
South Sudanese Peace Leadership
The Initiative for Peacebuilding has been supporting the critical role Australian South Sudanese community leaders and peacebuilders have in supporting longer-term peace, both within their communities in Australia and for political development and social healing in South Sudan.
Conflict Transformation in Afghanistan
More than four decades of violent conflicts and foreign interventions have profoundly disrupted the politics and society in Afghanistan. The Taliban's forceful takeover of the country in 2021 has led to a collapse of peace process and an intersecting political, human rights, and humanitarian crises, with long-term implications for the future of peace and stability in the country and the region. The Initiative for Peacebuilding is undertaking research to examine historical peace processes and the challenges and prospects for conflict transformation towards inclusive and sustainable peace in the country.
Do No Harm
Addressing sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping and humanitarian response
Although the vast majority of peacekeeping humanitarian personnel conduct their work with the utmost care, respect and professionalism, a small portion perpetrate sexual exploitation and abuse against the populations they are supposed to support and protect. Unfortunately, the behaviours of these few can have serious consequences for the long-term outcomes of peace processes and humanitarian support.
This project is led by Associate Professor Jasmine Westendorf and is currently funded by the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Scheme. It investigates the nature, scale and impacts of sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian operations, and the challenges facing effective prevention and accountability efforts.
Bougainville Senior Leadership Professional Development Programme 2023-2024
The BSLPDP is an Australian government programme implemented by the University of Melbourne Initiative for Peacebuilding with financial support from the New Zealand Government. The programme supports the professional development needs of senior government officials (President, Ministers and Secretaries) from Bougainville and the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG).
Peacebuilding Perspectives Conversation Series
The Initiative for Peacebuilding launched a Conversation Series in 2021 to hold space for deeper listening to Australian-based peacebuilders as well as discussion of important dimensions of their peacebuilding work. Hosted by Dr Tania Miletic, these conversations continue in 2024 with a fascinating and diverse range of peacebuilders from Australia and the world.
Preparations for the UN Summit of the Future
In September 2024 Australia participated in the United Nations Summit of the Future. In partnership with other collaborators, the Initiative for Peacebuilding prepared a series of briefing papers to stimulate discussion of key issues on the agenda for the Summit with interested Australians and community organisations.
Myanmar Conflict Transformation
Since 2021 the Initiative for Peacebuilding has led research and engagement activities concerning conflict transformation in Myanmar. In collaboration with the Australia Myanmar Institute in February 2024, the Initiative for Peacebuilding convened a major symposium in on pursuing conflict transformation and peace in Myanmar post-military coup. This hybrid symposium brought together Myanmar and Australian government leaders, researchers and practitioners to reflect on and further prospects for conflict transformation in Myanmar through presentations, panel discussion and participatory engagement.
Policy Submissions and Policy Brief Series
Since 2017 Dr Tania Miletic and Professor John Langmore have contributed to and published numerous policy briefs about peacebuilding which have been submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2023 the Initiative made a submission to DFAT’s New International Development Policy and delivered a range of briefings to high level government actors and parliamentarians in partnership with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. In 2024, the Initiative published a series of briefing papers in preparation for the UN Summit of the Future.
Visiting Scholars Program
The Initiative was delighted to host Dr Jeremy Simons as a visiting scholar in 2024. Jeremy is a senior research fellow at the Te Ngāpara Centre for Restorative Practice (Victoria University Wellington) with over 20 years of experience as an educator, organiser, and community-oriented researcher. His current scholarship and research support restorative initiatives in education, justice sectors, and community contexts. Having been born and raised in the Philippines he is curious about how culture interacts with restorative justice, peacebuilding, and community development.
Arts and Peacebuilding
The Initiative for Peacebuilding has members and affiliates who are involved in the connection between arts and peacebuilding, which includes the Creative Peace Collaboratory, a research, engagement, and translation initiative based in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne. It is led by Dr Gillian Howell as part of her Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2023–2026, exploring music and other arts practices as resources for peacebuilding and peace-seeking.
Peace Education Project
Professor Joseph Lo Bianco is developing an event that focuses on peace education, drawing together cases and experiences internationally to emphasise the importance of education for peacebuilding.
Connections That Matter Workshops
This project brings together people from across Melbourne’s diverse south-east to explore what social cohesion means in the local community. These workshops aim to create spaces for sharing experiences, perspectives, and ideas about how we can live together in peace and safety—even during challenging times—and the roles we all play in strengthening connection.
Publications
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Masoom Stanekzai, 2025, Islam, Inclusive Governance and the Quest for Peace: The Case of Afghanistan
Matilda Byrne, 2024, Autonomous Weapons Must be Controlled Urgently (An Issues Brief in Preparation for the UN Summit of the Future 2024).
John Langmore AM, Dr Tania Miletic and Dr David Richardson, 2024, Strengthening Australian Diplomacy (An Issues Brief in Preparation for the UN Summit of the Future 2024).
John Langmore AM and Ramesh Thakur, 2024, Transform or Die: the Case for Reforming the UN Security Council (An Issues Brief in Preparation for the UN Summit of the Future 2024).
Russell Rollason AM, Adrian Morrice, Simon Richards and Jacob Berah, 2024, Rising to the Challenge: how Australia can Help Transform the UN Peacebuilding Commission (An Issues Brief in Preparation for the UN Summit of the Future 2024).
Gem Romuld, Tilman Ruff AO and Melissa Parke, 2024, Luck Is Not a Strategy: It's Time to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (An Issues Brief in Preparation for the UN Summit of the Future 2024).
Erika Feller AO FAIIA, 2024, Impunity, Accountability and Respect for Human Rights and the Rule of Law (An Issues Brief in Preparation for the UN Summit of the Future 2024). The Australia Peacebuilding Network, 2024, Peacebuilding in Australian Foreign Policy: a Summary of Views and Conclusions from the Australia Peacebuilding Network Roundtable.
John Langmore, Tania Miletic, Aran Martin, and Bob Breen, 2020, Security Through Sustainable Peace: Australian International Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding, Melbourne School of Government and School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
John Langmore, Tania Miletic, Aran Martin, and Nathan Shea, 2017, State Support for Peace Processes: A Multi-Country Review, Published by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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Htwe, Sophia (2026) 'Rakhine's Changing Political Order and the Future of Rohingya Citizenship' ANU Myanmar Research Centre, May 8 2026
Samad, O. & Wardak, A. 2026 'History and selective memory as weapons: How to responsibly contain the Afgha-Pakistan crisis' World Affairs 21c, February 11 2026
Samad, O. & Abid, M. 2026 'Rethinking 'Nationalism': Toward a shared Afghanistan vision through dialogues' World Affairs 21, January 29 2026
Samad, O., Raheen, M. & Kakar, R. 2025 'Afghanistan at the UN: Challenges meet a range of perspectives' World Affairs 21, 13 December 2025
Qayumi, K., Mashal, A., Rasikh, J. S., Surush, L. & Bin Shah, S. 2025 'Afghanistan at year's end: Select insights, assessments and recommendations moving forward' World Affairs 21c, edited by Omar Samad, 31 December 2025
Ibrahimi, Niamatullah; Saba, Arif and Taye Safiullah, ‘After 4 years of repressive Taliban rule, Afghans are suffering in silence. Is the world still watching?’, The Conversation, 14 August 2025.
Abid, Mujib, 2025, 'Afghan Exilic Writing Between Worlds (Part Two)', Border Criminologies (University of Oxford Faculty of Law Blogs).
Abid, Mujib, 2025, 'Sufism in Exile as Border Thinking (Part One)', Border Criminologies (University of Oxford Faculty of Law Blogs).
Abid, Mujib, and Samad, Omar, 2025, 'A MOSAIC Approach to Afghanistan: Controversy and Opportunity', Global Village Space.
Shortis, Emma, Mamouri, Ali, Parmeter, Ian, Westendorf, Jasmine-Kim, and Akbarzadeh, Shahram, 2025, 'Does Donald Trump deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? We asked 5 experts', The Conversation.
Miletic, Tania, and Abid, Mujib, 2024, 'The Shrine of Remembrance Turns 90: Time to Mourn, not Glorify War, and to Seed Hope for the Living', Australian Outlook.
Langmore, John, 2024, 'Is the UN's Pact for the Future a Breakdown or a Breakthrough?', Pursuit.
Langmore, John, 2024, 'The Underfunding of Australian Diplomacy Continues', Australian Outlook.
Langmore, John, 2023, 'A Breakthrough for Justice and Peace', Pursuit.
Langmore, John 2022, 'Peacebuilding – It’s Time to End Australia’s Neglect', Australian Outlook. Miletic, Tania and Anouk Ride, 2022, 'Tensions are high between China and Australia over Solomon Islands, but it’s in everyone’s interests to simmer down', The Guardian.
Ride, Anouk and Tania Miletic, 2022, 'Stepping carefully amid conflict in the Pacific', Pursuit. Feller, Erika, 2022, 'Social Justice – How and for Whom?', Australian Outlook.
Barbora, Sanjay, 2022, 'AUKUS an unwelcome guest at the table of nuclear disarmament', Pearls and Irritations, 16 January 2022.
McDougall, Derek, 2022, An Authoritarian Turn in the United States: Implications for Australia? Australian Outlook (Australian Institute of International Affairs), 28 January 2022, An Authoritarian Turn in the United States: Implications for Australia? - AIIA - Australian Institute of International Affairs.
John Langmore and Tania Miletic, 2021, Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Inquiry into Funding for Public Research into Foreign Policy Issues, March.
Tania Miletic and John Langmore, 2020, ‘Australian Threadbare Diplomacy in Conflict,’ Australian Outlook, 26 November.
Miletic, Tania. 2018, Diaspora and Peacebuilding. Prepared for Diaspora Learning Network and Diaspora Action Australia. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Miletic, Tania. 2018, Concept Note: Diaspora Peacebuilding and Reconciliation. Prepared for Diaspora Learning Network’s Seminar #1, DAA and DFAT.
Miletic, Tania. 2016, ‘Cambodia’s peace 25 years on’, Australian Outlook, Australian Institute of International Affairs, 26 October.
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J Westendorf, ‘Crimes by Peacekeepers’ in Mallinder, Killean & Dempster (eds.) Edward Elgar Encyclopedia on Law and Peace, Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2025.
J Westendorf, ‘Masculinities and Institutional Blind Spots’ in J Westendorf and E Dolan-Evans (eds.) Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping and Aid, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024.
A Naik** & J Westendorf, ‘Missing the Mark in Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse’ in J Westendorf and E Dolan-Evans* (eds.) Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping and Aid, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024.
J Westendorf, ‘Rethinking PSEA: Reflections for Policy Makers’ in J Westendorf and E Dolan-Evans* (eds.) Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping and Aid, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024.
J Westendorf & E Dolan-Evans*, ‘Two Decades of Dealing with Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping and Aid’ in Westendorf & Dolan-Evans* (eds.) Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping and Aid, Bristol UP, 2024.
McDougall, Derek 2021. International Relations, in Understanding Contemporary Asia Pacific, 2nd ed. Katherine Palmer Kaup, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 177–234.
McDougall, Derek 2021. Australia and the South Pacific Islands in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, in Humanitarianism in Asia-Pacific: Engaging the Debate in Policy and Practice, eds Alistair Cook and Lina Gong, Springer Briefs in Political Science, Springer Nature, Singapore, pp. 41–45.
J Westendorf, ‘Women, Peace and Security and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping Operations,’ in The Oxford Handbook of Women Peace and Security, Sara E. Davies and Jacqui True (eds.), Oxford UP, 2019.
J Westendorf, ‘Violence and the contestation of the state after civil wars’ in M. Killingsworth and M. Sussex,Violence and the State. Manchester University Press, 2015.
J Langmore & S Fitzgerald 'Strengthening global economic governancen' in Macdonald, K., Marshall, S. & Pinto, S. (eds) New Visions for Market Governance: Crisis and Renewal. Routledge, New York. 2012
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Stanekzai, Masoom, 2025 'Making Peace Sustainable: The Struggle in Afghanistan' International Journal of Peace - Paxlumina 06(5) Pp. 8-11
Gatwiri, K., Krupka, Z. & Abid, M. 2025, 'Maintaining Standards or Gatekeeping the Academy? Reflections of Peer Review Experiences by Racially and Culturally Minoritized Scholars in Australia', Sociology Compass.
Ibrahimi, N., Abdelhameed, H. & Farasoo, A. 2025 'The Securitization of Civil Society in Conflict Zones: A Comparative Study of Iraq and Afghanistan', Journal of Global Security Studies, 10(3) September
Gegeo, D., Pendeverana, L., Paia, M. T., Maebuta, J., Ride, A. & Aqorau, T. 2025, 'Environmental Peacebuilding, Indigenous Epistemologies and Experience: Learning From Ruptures and Resilience in Solomon Islands', Asia Pacific Viewpoint 66(1) Pp. 130-141
Westendorf, J. & Jennings, K. M. 2025 ‘Elusive accountability: governing sexual exploitation and abuse under the grip of sexual violence in war,’ International Affairs, 101(2), March, Pp 603–622
Parkes, N. & Pruitt, Lesley. 2024, 'Youth Choreographing Peace: Dance in and Beyond the Refugee Camp', Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 20(1) Pp 38-53
Westendorf, J., Bian, J., Daigle, M., Jennings, K., Potts, A., Reddick, M., Massonneau, C., Gamhewage, G. & Mahmoud, M. E. 2024 ‘Sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in humanitarian contexts’ Bulletin of the World Health Organization 102(12) December Pp 888-894
Westendorf, J. 2024 ‘Troubling masculinities: Researching sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers’, Peacebuilding (Special Issue), 12(4), December, pp. 518-536.
Darwish, S. & Tuenpakdee, N. 2023, 'The State of Civic Peacebuilding in South and Southeast Asia' (Discussion Paper), The Asia Foundation.
Bergtora Sandvik, K. & J Westendorf, J. 2023 ‘Safeguarding Sex: The Technopolitics of Humanitarian Genomic Accountability,’ Global Studies Quarterly, 3(2), April ksad032
Westendorf, J. 2023 ‘A Problem of Rules: Sexual exploitation and UN legitimacy,’ International Studies Quarterly, 67(3) September, sqad046
Westendorf, J. 2023 ‘Sex on mission: care, control and coloniality in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations,’ International Affairs, 99(4), July, Pp 1653–1672
Feller, E. & Langmore, J. 2022. 'Implications of the UN Common Agenda for Australia: Renewing Multilateralism', Australian Journal of International Affairs 77 (1), Pp 1–11.
McDougall, D. 2021. 'Australia’s humanitarian response to disasters in the South Pacific'. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 6(3) Pp. 202-220
McDougall, D. 2021. 'Concerns for the neighbours (and some others): international involvement in the conflicts in the Southern Philippines and West Papua' Small Wars and Insurgencies, 32(6) Pp. 977-1011
Chauvel, R. & McDougall, D. 2021, ‘Introduction: Maritime Southeast Asia’s encounter with Westphalianism’, Small Wars & Insurgencies, 32(6) Pp. 855-866
McDougall, D. 2021, 'The frontlines of peace: an insider's guide to changing the world' Book Review Peacebuilding 10(4) Pp. 506-507
Westendorf, J. & Strating, R. 2020 ‘Women in Australian international affairs’, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 74(3), June, Pp. 213-227.
Strating, R. & Westendorf, J. 2020 ‘A critical analysis of Australian foreign, defence and strategic policy’, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 74(3), June, Pp 208-212.
Westendorf, J. 2018 ‘Peace negotiations in the political marketplace: The implications of exclusion in the Sudan-South Sudan peace process’, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 72(5) August, Pp. 433-454.
Westendorf, J. 2018 ‘Challenges of local ownership: Understanding the outcomes of the international community’s ‘light footprint’ approach to the Nepal peace process’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 12(2), June 2018, pp. 228 252.
Martin, A., Nathan S., & Langmore, J. 2017, ‘International mediation and Australian Foreign Policy: building institutional capacity to respond to overseas conflict’, Australian Journal of International Affairs 71 (1) Pp 88–104.
Westendorf, J. & Searle, L. 2017 ‘Sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations: trends, policy responses, and future directions,’ International Affairs, 93(2), March, Pp. 365-387
Langmore, J. & Farrall, J. 2016, ‘Can Elected Members Make a Difference in the UN Security Council? Australia’s Experience in 2013-2014’, Global Governance, 22(1), Jan–March, Pp 59–77.
Langmore, J. & Thakur, R. 2016, ‘The Elected and Neglected Security Council Members’, The Washington Quarterly, 39(2), Pp. 99-114
Langmore, J. 2013, ‘Australia’s Campaign for Security Council Membership’, 2013, Australian Journal of Political Science, March, 48(1), Pp 101–111.
Westendorf, J. 2013 ''Add women and stir': the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands and Australia’s implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325’, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 67(4), Pp. 456 74.
McLachlan-Bent, A. & Langmore, J. 2011, ‘A Crime against Humanity? Implications and Prospects of the Responsibility to Protect in the Wake of Cyclone Nargis’, Global Responsibility to Protect, 3(1), Pp 37–60.
Langmore, J. & Egeland, J. 2011, ‘Learning from Norway: Independent Middle-Power Foreign Policy’, Griffith Review 32, May, Pp 164–179.
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J Westendorf and Elliot Dolan-Evans (eds.) Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping and Aid, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024. https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollbook/book/9781529238433/9781529238433.xml
McDougall, Derek and Chauvel Richard (guest editors). 2021 Small Wars & Insurgencies, 32, no. 6.
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Abid, Mujib 2025 'Taliban arrests Afghan men for Peaky Blinders dress up', ABC News, 9 December 2025
Niamatullah Ibrahimi was interviewed by the BBC on 18 June 2025 about the Israel-Iran conflict.
Ibrahimi, Niamatullah and Stanekzai, Masoom, 2025, 'The risks and rewards of engaging with Afghanistan's Taliban government', Ear to Asia podcast, Melbourne Asia Review.
Duxbury, Alison; Miletic, Tania and McDougall, Carrie, 2024, 'From Gaza to Ukraine — is it harder to build peace, than to start war?', Big Ideas podcast, ABC Radio National.
J Westendorf, ‘Sexual abuse by UN and non-UN peacekeepers’ ABC Big Ideas, 15 June 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/bigideas/sexual-abuse-by-un-and-non-un-peacekeepers/12247920
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J Westendorf, Violating Peace: Sex, Aid and Peacekeeping, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748059/
J Westendorf, Why Peace Processes Fail: Negotiating Insecurity after Civil War, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2015. https://www.rienner.com/title/Why_Peace_Processes_Fail_Negotiating_Insecurity_After_Civil_War
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Abid, M. (2025). Hassan Abbas: The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left [Book review]. International Quarterly for Asian Studies, 56(1), 106-109. https://doi.org/10.11588/iqas.2025.1.28570
Contacts
General enquiries
E: peace-team@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Tania Miletic
Co-Director, Initiative for Peacebuilding
T: +61 437 272 287 E: tmiletic@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Jasmine Westendorf
Co-Director, Initiative for Peacebuilding
E: jasmine.westendorf@unimelb.edu.au
Ella Reweti
Coordinator, Initiative for Peacebuilding
E: ella.reweti@unimelb.edu.au
Professor John Langmore
Chair of the Advisory Board, Initiative for Peacebuilding
T: +61 419 897 489 E: langmore@unimelb.edu.au
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Make a gift
The Initiative for Peacebuilding brings together multidisciplinary research, engagement, and education to advance peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the Indo-Pacific region.
Sustainable peace is one of the essential conditions for global security and wellbeing. One way that peace is pursued is through the prevention and transformation of violent conflicts, and the conditions that give rise to these conflicts. Another is through supporting the attitudes, institutions and structures that can sustain peaceful societies.
With deep regional expertise and capabilities which bridge research and practice, the Initiative for Peacebuilding contributes to peacebuilding and conflict prevention by:
- researching peacebuilding in innovative and regionally grounded programs
- engaging with peacebuilding practice and policy from the standpoint of a university-based initiative
- educating the current and next generation of peacebuilding practitioners and researchers
If you are interested in supporting the Initiative, please refer to our downloadable brochure. Funds donated via the link below go directly toward supporting the activities of the Initiative.