Sunday Times Smart Thinking Book of the Year 2022 ¿ New York Times Bestseller¿ WINNER OF THE
GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE AWARD ¿ BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Financial Times The Times Esquire
Prospect '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. This is an important book' Steven
Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt authors of How Democracies Die Civil wars are the biggest danger
to world peace today - this book shows us why they happen and how to avoid them. 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 including Iraq Syria and Libya and smaller civil
wars are being fought in India and Malaysia. Even countries we thought could never experience
another civil war - such as the USA Sweden and Ireland - are showing signs of unrest. So how
can we stop them? In How Civil Wars Start acclaimed expert Professor Barbara F. Walter who
has advised on political violence everywhere from the CIA to the U.S. Senate to the United
Nations explains the rise of civil wars and the conditions that create them - not least when
countries are not quite democratic. As democracies across the world backslide and citizens
become more polarised civil wars will become even more widespread and last longer than they
have in the past - but this urgent and important book shows us a path back toward peace.
