Sarah von Billerbeck
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100
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Professor
- Research Division Leader
Modules taught/convened:
- The Political Economy of Civil War (PIM62)
- Contemporary Diplomacy (PIM66)
- Building Peace After Civil War (PIM80)
Areas of interest
My research has two main thrusts: first, United Nations (UN) peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction, and second, international organizations, legitimacy, organizational culture and change, and decision-making and authority.
I have completed major projects on local ownership in UN peacekeeping; self-legitimation in international organizations, examining the UN, NATO, and the World Bank; authoritarianism and UN peacekeeping; local knowledge in international peacebuilding; and race and inequality in international organizations. My current research examines decision-making in international organizations, member state control of international interventions, inequality in international organizations, international organizations as intermediaries, and local ownership and local knowledge in peace and security.
My research has been funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Folke Bernadotte Academy of Sweden, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UN University and the UK Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the Clarendon Fund, and the Universities of Reading and Oxford.
Postgraduate supervision
I am happy to consider doctoral supervision on:
- peacekeeping and peacebuilding
- international organisations
- the UN
- legitimacy
- civil war and post-conflict reconstruction.
Research centres and groups
Centre for Global Security and GovernanceBackground
I joined the University of Reading in 2015. Prior to that I was a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of War Studies, King's College London. I was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of International Development, University of Oxford in 2018 and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Governance at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany in 2023, and I was an Associate Member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford, from 2013-2020.
I previously worked for the UN Peacekeeping Mission in D.R. Congo (MONUC), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in Lebanon, the American Refugee Committee in Guinea, and the Institute of World Affairs in Washington, DC.
Academic qualifications
- DPhil in International Relations, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
- MS in Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- BA in English and French, University of California, Berkeley
- Fellow, Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Awards and honours
- 2025 International Studies Association International Diplomacy Section Best Paper Award Runner-Up
- 2020 University Best Research Output Prize, University of Reading
Professional bodies/affiliations
- Chair, International Organization Section, International Studies Association
- International Research Working Group Member, Folke Bernadotte Academy
- Member, Global Alliance for Peace Operations
- Editorial Board, International Peacekeeping
- Member, External Democracy Promotion Network
- Executive Committee Member, Oxford Peace Research Network
- Trustee, Oxford Peace Research Trust
- Senior Fellow, Weidenfeld-Hoffman Trust
Selected publications
- “UN Peacekeepers as Enablers of Host State Authoritarianism?” With Birte Julia Gippert, Kseniya Oksamytna, and Oisín Tansey. Multilateralism in Action, Columbia University SIPA, March 2025. https://multilateralism.sipa.columbia.edu/news/un-peacekeepers-enablers-host-state-authoritarianism.
- “Can Racial Hierarchies in UN Peacekeeping be Dismantled?” With Kseniya Oksamytna. Global Dialogue 14, no. 2 (August 2024): 17-18. https://globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/articles/can-racial-hierarchies-in-un-peacekeeping-be-dismantled.
- “Senior Leadership Performance Management in International Organizations.” With Philipp Lottholz. UN and Global Order Programme, University of Reading, April 2019. https://research.reading.ac.uk/ungop/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2019/04/UNGOP-IO-Senior-Leadership-Performance-Management-Final-Report.pdf.
- “All talk and no action or no action without talk? United Nations peacekeeping and internal legitimacy.” Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation Blog, August 2018. https://www.daghammarskjold.se/blog/peacekeeping-legitimacy/
- “Peacekeeping under a new Secretary-General: priorities, challenges and opportunities.” New World (United Nations Association-UK) 2, 2016. https://una.org.uk/magazine/2-2016/peacekeeping-under-new-secretary-general-priorities-challenges-and-opportunities
- Is the news about Congo's conflict minerals good?” Washington Post, The Monkey Cage, 18 June 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/18/is-the-news-about-congos-conflict-minerals-good/.