Barbara F. Walter

Barbara F. Walter is the Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego and one of the world’s leading experts on civil wars, violent extremism and domestic terror.

She is the author of five books and dozens of articles on these subjects and is a contributor to CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, the BBC and PBS NewsHour. She has written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Time, The New Republic, Reuters and Foreign Affairs. 

Walter was the recipient of the 2022 Peacemaker of the Year Award, given by the National Conflict Resolution Center, and the International Studies Association's highest career award, the Susan Strange Award. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a 2023 TED speaker.

Her most recent book on civil wars, the New York Times bestselling “How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them,” was named the best book of the year by The Times (U.K.) and one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times, Esquire and Prospect Magazine. The New York Times Book Review called it “required reading for anyone invested in preserving our 246-year experiment in self-government.”

She received her master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and she did postdoctoral fellowships at the Olin Institute of Strategic Studies at Harvard University and the War & Peace Institute at Columbia University.. 

Walter co-founded (with Erica Chenoweth) the blog Political Violence @ A Glance, winner of numerous blogging awards since its inception in 2012.

For more information, please visit her personal site.

Education and CV

Ph.D., Political Science, University of Chicago
M.A., Political Science, University of Chicago
B.A., Political Science and German, Bucknell University
CV

GPS Spotlight

AC360

CNN - Michael Holmes

PBS - Christiane Amanpour

Upfront Ventures

MSNBC - Lawrence O'Donnell

Publications

Walter, Barbara F. "The Jihadist Threat Won't End with ISIS' Defeat." Foreign Affairs (December 2017).

Walter, Barbara F. "The Extremist's Advantage in Civil Wars." International Security. Vol. 42, No. 2 (Fall 2017).

Walter, Barbara F. "The New New Civil Wars." Annual Review of Political Science. Vol. 20:469-486 (2017).

Walter, Barbara F. "Why Bad Governance Leads to Repeat Civil War.” Journal of Conflict Resolution. 58.2 (2014).

Denny, Elaine and Barbara F. Walter. "Ethnicity and Civil War.” Journal of Peace Research. 51.2 (2014).

Maliniak, Daniel; Ryan Powers; and Barbara F. Walter. "The Gender Citation Gap in International Relations." International Organization. 67.4 (2013).

Tingley, Dustin H., and Barbara F. Walter. "The Effect of Repeated Play on Reputation Building: An Experimental Approach." International Organization. 65.2 (2011).

Tingley, Dustin H., and Barbara F. Walter. “Can Cheap Talk Deter? An Experimental Analysis.” Journal of Conflict Resolution. 55.6 (2011).

Walter, Barbara F. “Reputation and Civil War: Why Separatist Conflicts Are So Violent.” Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (2009).

Walter, Barbara F. "Bargaining Failures and Civil War." Annual Review of Political Science. 12 (2009).

Kydd, Andrew H., and Barbara F. Walter. "The Strategies of Terrorism." International Security. 31.1 (2006).

Walter, Barbara F. "Building Reputation: Why Governments Fight Some Separatists but Not Others." American Journal of Political Science. 50.2 (2006).

Walter, Barbara F. "Information, Uncertainty and the Decision to Secede." International Organization. 60.1 (2006).

Data Sets

The Civil War Resolution Dataset. Replication data for Barbara F. Walter.  “Committing to Peace: The Successful Settlement of Civil Wars.” Princeton University Press, 2002. Data File (.xls) | Codebook (.pdf)

Recurring Civil War Dataset. Replication data for Barbara F. Walter. “Does Conflict Beget Conflict? Explaining Recurring Civil War.” Journal of Peace Research. Vol. 41, no. 3 (May 2004). Data File (ZIP file of .dta) | Codebook (.pdf)

Government Accommodation of Separatist Groups Dataset. Replication data for Barbara F. Walter.  “Building Reputation: Why Governments Fight Some Separatists But Not Others.” American Journal of Political Science, (Spring 2006). Data File (.xls)

Self-Determination Movement Dataset. Replication data for Barbara F. Walter. “Information, Uncertainty and the Decision to Secede.” International Organization. Vol. 60, no. 1 (Winter 2006). Data File (ZIP file of .dta).