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, political violence and democratic decline.

She is the author of the New York Times bestseller “How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them,” which was named a best book of the year by The Times (U.K.), 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 is the author of five books and dozens of scholarly articles on civil war, political violence and conflict.

Walter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She received the International Studies Association’s Susan Strange Award, which recognizes a scholar whose “singular intellect, assertiveness and insight most challenge conventional wisdom,” and was named the National Conflict Resolution Center’s Peacemaker of the Year in 2022.

In 2023, Walter gave a TED Talk on the warning signs of civil war that has been viewed millions of times. She is a frequent commentator on American democracy, political violence and international conflict and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, BBC and PBS NewsHour. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Time, The New Republic, Reuters and Foreign Affairs.

Walter writes Here Be Dragons, a newsletter about democracy, political violence, and where America may be heading. Read Here Be Dragons.

Walter also co-founded, with Erica Chenoweth, Political Violence @ A Glance, an award-winning blog bringing research on political violence to a broader public audience.

She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and Columbia University’s War and Peace Studies Institute.

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

Watch additional videos:
Why it matters. Artificial Intelligence — the next disrupter with Barbara F. Walter

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).