How Civil Wars Start

Civil wars are the biggest danger to world peace today – this book shows us why they happen, and how to avoid them.

‘When one of the world’s leading scholars of civil war tells us that a country is on the brink of violent conflict, we should pay attention’ Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die

We are now living in the world’s greatest era of civil wars. While violence has declined worldwide, major civil wars are now being fought in countries Iraq, Syria and Libya as well as smaller civil wars in India and Malaysia. Even countries we thought could never experience another – such as the USA, Sweden and Ireland – are showing signs of unrest. So how can we stop them?

In How Civil Wars Start, Professor Barbara F. Walter, an expert who has advised the CIA, Senate and UN, explains the rise of civil wars, the conditions that create them and a path back toward peace.

*Sunday Times Smart Thinking Book of the Year 2022 & New York Times Bestseller*