This article was downloaded by: [King's College London]

On: 03 June 2015, At: 12:40

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954
Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,
UK

International Feminist Journal of

Politics
Publication details, including instructions for authors
and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfjp20

Jelke Boesten. Sexual Violence

during War and Peace: Gender,
Power, and Post-Conflict Justice
in Peru
a

Angelika Rettberg
a

Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Published online: 09 Mar 2015.

Click for updates

To cite this article: Angelika Rettberg (2015) Jelke Boesten. Sexual Violence during
War and Peace: Gender, Power, and Post-Conflict Justice in Peru, International Feminist
Journal of Politics, 17:2, 354-356, DOI: 10.1080/14616742.2015.1015795
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2015.1015795

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the
information (the Content) contained in the publications on our platform.
However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or
suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed
in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the
views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should
not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources
of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions,
claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities

whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection

with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

Downloaded by [King's College London] at 12:40 03 June 2015

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.
Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sublicensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly
forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

cations of Brazils ongoing process of transitional justice regarding its dictatorial past, including a national truth commission and continued pressure
for criminal trials of military and police torturers, for human-security governance there). Yet such is to be expected of any book ambitious enough to
analyze developments in cities from two different world regions over the
span of thirty-odd years, and The Security Archipelago manages to cover
a lot of ground in its 300-some pages. All told, Amars is an incisive and
thought-provoking account of the human costs of security in the twentyfirst century.

Downloaded by [King's College London] at 12:40 03 June 2015

Rebecca J. Atencio
Tulane University
Email: ratencio@tulane.edu
# Rebecca J. Atencio 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2015.1015792

Notes on contributor
Rebecca J. Atencio is Associate Professor of Brazilian Cultural Studies
at Tulane University. She is author of Memorys Turn: Reckoning with
Dictatorship in Brazil (2014) and founder/editor of the blog Transitional
Justice in Brazil. Her research investigates how social and historical memories
of violence find creative or artistic expression in contemporary Brazil.

Jelke Boesten. Sexual Violence during War and Peace: Gender, Power, and
Post-Conflict Justice in Peru. New York: Palgrave MacMillan and United
States Institute of Peace Press, 2014. ISBN 978 1 137 38344 0.
War and peace are connected, not only in terms of the institutional and social
legacies of war for peace, but also in terms of how people behave and judge
others. This is the central and extremely valuable message of this timely
book by Jelke Boesten. While the focus of the book is on sexual violence
its multiple manifestations and meanings in the context of Peru, the
message by far transcends the specific topic. In doing so, the book makes an
important contribution to a literature on peacebuilding and armed conflict
which too often depicts war as a traumatic and brutal exception to normality. In contrast with this widely held belief, the book proposes that what
happens in war is very much informed and shaped by social behavior and
practices during peaceful times, before and after armed conflict. In this
sense, as regards sexual violence, Boesten confirms the existence of a continuum of violence from peace-to-war-to-peace which manifests itself not
only in physical violence but also draws from social understandings and justifications of violence embedded in legal and policy practices, as well as in

354

International Feminist Journal of Politics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Downloaded by [King's College London] at 12:40 03 June 2015

actual rules and regulations. This explains why impunity prevails in peaceful
and post-conflict societies and why international norms and standards on
aspects of sexual or other types of violence are difficult to implement. Boestens analysis suggests that this is not only a result of lack of political will or of
institutional capacity, but also of a clear disconnect between readings and
understandings of international and domestic legal norms and the cultural
and social practices within transitional countries. The insight is important as
it underscores the sizable task facing other societies involved in transitions
from war to peace in terms of the ability to recognize, acknowledge, address
and overcome past atrocities in every realm of social life.
Against this background, the book problematizes the question of why people
behave violently. In regards to sexual violence, defined as all acts that can be
labeled as unwanted sexual acts and exposure according to one or more of the
following: victims, perpetrators, witnesses or judiciary (11), the book questions the utility of the rape-as-strategy-of-war explanation according to
which rape results from both opportunity and from a desire to weaken and
humiliate the enemy by taking its women and depicts sexual violence as a
much more complex, socially and culturally informed form of aggression
which reflects a mix of (social and ethnic) conflicts, not just an armed competition over territorial control by specific armed factions. In line with this goal,
the author, while not shying away from describing the most brutal details of
violence as it unfolded in Peru, refrains from drawing a bad man/good
woman dichotomy by depicting men as voracious and uncontrollable consumers of sex or women as lacking agency even in moments of utmost vulnerability. It is this pragmatic, decanted depiction of the context in which sexual
violence occurs that makes the books message particularly compelling and
sobering, as it reminds the reader of how context and institutions developed
before, during and after war produce all kinds of behavior by normal
people, including sexually violent practices.
Finally, the book should be commended for its methodological approach,
specifically its ethical decision to use already available information, gathered
by Perus Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), instead of conducting
additional interviews with victims of sexual violence. Because of a concern
for validity and for fear of contributing to the renewed suffering of women,
the author chose to use available information collected by TRC interviewers
and available to the public. In doing so, Boesten adds a level of analysis to
her work, as she was better able to unmask the prejudice and social norms
present even among those investigating and seeking redress for human
rights violations on behalf of the TRC. In this sense, she sets an important precedent for other conflict and post-conflict researchers, who are too often dominated by the need for creativity and originality at the expense of the protection
of their research subjects.
This is a book that not only scholars interested in sexual violence but also
those seeking to comprehend the challenges of transitional societies overall
should read.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book reviews

355

Angelika Rettberg
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Email: rettberg@uniandes.edu.co
# Angelika Rettberg 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2015.1015795

Notes on contributor

Downloaded by [King's College London] at 12:40 03 June 2015

Angelika Rettberg is editor of Construccion de paz en Colombia (2012) and

Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at the Universidad
de los Andes, Bogota Colombia.

L. H. M. Ling. The Dao of World Politics: Towards a Post-Westphalian, Worldist

International Relations. London: Routledge, 2014. ISBN 9780415603782.
L. H. M. Lings book challenges the hegemonic Westphalian approach to narrating world politics, drawing upon a Daoist dialectic framework to reconceptualize International Relations (IR). Daoist dialectics examine the simultaneously
complementary and contradictory relationships between actors, as they contribute to and are shaped by larger structures. It is a relational way to view
the world, such that each political player matters in contributing to the way
the world operates. Ling moves away from the idea that there is a singular Westphalia World to be led, guided and shaped by the US/Global North/West,
exploring instead the realities of multiple worlds. In worldism, or the Multiple
Worlds that encompass multiple ways of being and living, there are a variety
of interactions and influences between, among and through Others. Lings
argument is convincing for two reasons.
First, she does not cast aside or seek to topple but rather engages the
Westphalia World. While others who are critical of the Westphalian order
would agree that it operates via hegemony, hierarchy, [and] violence,
Ling takes the additional step to illustrate the role of hegemony in its dialectical relationship with alternative worlds (14). She does not reproduce
the binary between hegemony and the margins but instead examines
how precisely because Westphalia is within us, we are in turn motivated
to seek dialogics, relationality and creative compassion to transform power
relationships. Who would imagine that Westphalia World serves as yang
[striding forcefully in public, visibly and imposingly] to Multiple Worlds
yin [acting in private, hidden and silenced] (18)? But she provides ample
examples of how peoples of India and China . . . simultaneously contested
and embraced the European Enlightenment (34), of the need to examine
mutual learning between worlds (37), of how to rethink China-asthreat (88), of examining changes in Westphalia World due to Multiple

356

International Feminist Journal of Politics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------