Our Path Forward Lecture Series: Barbara F. Walter presents How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them (Virtual)

Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq and Sri Lanka, but now she has become increasingly worried about our own country.

Barbara F. Walter, Ph.D., is the Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. She received her Ph.D from the University of Chicago and completed post docs at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University and the War and Peace Institute at Columbia University. 

Walter is one of the world's leading experts on civil wars, political violence, and terrorism. Her books include the award-winning Committing to Peace: Why Negotiations Fail, Reputation and Civil War, and Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention. Her recent book, How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, explores whether the U.S. is heading toward a second civil war.