Barbara F. Walter is 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 the PBS NewsHour. She has written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, 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 (it recognizes a person whose intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and intellectual and organizational complacency in the international studies community). She is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a TED2023 speaker.
Her most recent book on civil wars, New York Times bestseller “How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them,” was named the best book of the year by The Times (UK), and one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times, Esquire and Prospect Magazine. The New York Times Book Review called the book “Required reading for anyone invested in preserving our 246-year experiment in self-government.”
Walter is the Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and did post-doctoral fellowships at the Olin Institute of Strategic Studies at Harvard University, and the War & Peace Institute at Columbia University. Walter is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. Walter co-founded (with Erica Chenoweth) the blog Political Violence @ A Glance, winner of numerous blogging awards since its inception in 2012.