Civil wars have changed. In the last 20 years, the average duration has increased and organizations like the UN have had a harder time keeping the peace. This has been particularly true in the Middle East and North Africa where most peace-keeping and state-building efforts have failed. James "Jim" Fearon, an FSI senior fellow and member of the American Academy, tells us why civil wars have changed.
Fearon is one of eight FSI scholars confronting civil war threats with the "Civil Wars, Violence, and International Responses" project. Supported by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, FSI's Karl Eikenberry and Stephen D. Krasner gathered experts from around the world to talk about changing international policy to meet these new challenges. We will be speaking with each of the scholars about how civil wars are changing, how they might affect the rest of the world, and what we can do about it.
To learn more about the project, check out the Fall 2017 and Winter 2018 issues of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the outreach projects Eikenberry and Krasner are embarking on around the world: www.amacad.org/project/civil-wars-violence-and-international-responses.