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. Quotes Scholars know where civil wars break out and who tends to start them: downgraded groups in anocracies dominated by ethnic factions. But what triggers them? What finally tips a country into conflict? Citizens can absorb a lot of pain. They will accept years of discrimination and poverty and remain quiet, enduring the ache of slow decline. What they can’t take is the loss of hope. It’s when a group looks into the future and sees nothing but additional pain that they start to see violence as their only path to progress. The internet has created incentives for warring factions to frame their struggle in global terms in order to attract the widest audience of supporters. This creates greater opportunities for outside states to become involved in the war to try to influence the outcome. People are desperate for high quality analysis, especially of complex current events. External links Barbara F. Walter Category:Living people Category:Women scientists from the United States Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Political scientists from the United States Category:Women academics from the United States Category:University of Chicago alumni