# Barbara F. Walter

Barbara F. Walter is an American political scientist who is the Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. Walter’s main areas of study are civil wars, violent extremism and domestic terrorism. Walter has written multiple books including How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them (2022) which examined whether the US was heading toward a second civil war.

## Early life and education

Walter grew up in Yonkers, New York. Her mother emigrated from Switzerland where she grew up on a dairy farm. Her father emigrated from Germany where he came from a long line of inventors, entrepreneurs, and academics. She received her B.A. in political science and German from Bucknell University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science, both from the University of Chicago. She completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, and at the War and Peace Institute at Columbia University.

## Career

Walter has taught at the University of California, San Diego since 1996. She spent 2005-2006 as a Neihaus Fellow at Princeton University. In 2012 she co-founded the blog Political Violence @ a Glance with Erica Chenoweth which ran until 2023. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Walter has consulted for the World Bank, the US Departments of Defense and State, the United Nations, and the January 6th Committee.
She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and PBS, and has written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Time, The New Republic, and Foreign Affairs.

## Honors and awards

* Member, National Academy of Sciences
* Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* Speaker, Aspen Ideas Festival (2022)
* Susan Strange Award (International Studies Association, 2021)
* Kenneth Waltz Distinguished Lecture, Columbia University (2022)
* Morton-Kenney Public Affairs Distinguished Lecture, Southern Illinois University (2019)
* Cyril Foster Distinguished Public Lecture, Oxford University (2018)

## Selected bibliography

* Walter, Barbara F. (2009). Reputation and Civil War: Why Separatist Conflicts Are So Violent. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511642012. ISBN 9780521763523.
* Kahler, Miles, and Barbara Walter, editors. Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization. Cambridge University Press, 2006, Cambridge University Press
* Committing to Peace: The Successful Settlement of Civil Wars. Princeton Univ. Press. April 13, 2021. ISBN 9781400824465.
* Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention. Columbia University Press. September 1999. ISBN 9780231116275.
* Walter, Barbara F. “Why Bad Governance Leads to Repeat Civil War.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 59, no. 7, 2015, pp. 1242–72. JSTOR*Denny, Elaine K.; Walter, Barbara F. (March 2014). "Ethnicity and civil war". Journal of Peace Research. 51 (2): 199–212. doi:10.1177/0022343313512853. S2CID 110666158.
* Maliniak, Daniel; Powers, Ryan; Walter, Barbara F. (October 2013). "The Gender Citation Gap in International Relations". International Organization. 67 (4): 889–922. doi:10.1017/S0020818313000209. S2CID 54062777.
* Walter, Barbara F. “The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement.” International Organization, vol. 51, no. 3, 1997, pp. 335–364., doi:10.1162/002081897550384
* Walter, Barbara (January 2022). How Civil Wars Start and How To Stop Them. Crown. ISBN 9780593137789.