Monica Toft

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Monica Duffy Toft is an American international relations scholar. Her research interests include international security and strategy, ethnic and religious violence, civil wars, and the relationship between demography and national security. Among her researches, her theory of indivisible territory explains how certain conflicts turn violent while others not, and when it is likely for a conflict to become a violent. [1] Since 2017 she holds the position of Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Director of the Fletcher School's Center for Strategic Studies.

Contents

Life and career

Education

Toft graduated from the U.S. Army's Defense Language Institute in 1984 with highest honours. She then completed the Associate of Arts General Curriculum of the University of Maryland's European Division in 1987. In 1990 Toft graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in political science and Slavic languages and literature from the University of California Santa Barbara. She went on to the University of Chicago, where she completed both an M.A. (1992) and a Ph.D. (1998) in political science.[ citation needed ] The title of her doctoral dissertation was The Geography of Ethnic Conflict.

Career

Toft's professional career began in the U.S. Army where she worked as a Russian linguist from 1983 to 1987. After completing her education, Toft joined the faculty at Harvard University where she was a professor of international politics at the Kennedy School of Government and Assistant Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. When the Olin Institute closed in 2007, Toft then established and directed the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at the Kennedy School. [2] In September 2012, Toft joined the faculty of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford as Professor of Government and Public Policy. During this period, she also spent four months as Professor of Strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. She left Oxford in 2017 to join Tufts University.

Toft is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Minorities at Risk Advisory Board, and the Political Instability Task Force. She is also Principal Investigator of the Commonwealth Initiative on Religious Freedom or Belief and a senior research scholar with the Modeling Religion Project, Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion, Boston University.

Her work has been recognised through numerous awards, grants and fellowships, including being named Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Foundation of New York for her research on religion and violence in 2008, awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Norway in 2012, and granted Princeton's World Politics Fellowship in 2015 .[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Toft is married to Ivan Arreguín-Toft, [3] also a scholar of international security and strategic studies and an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University. [4]

Books

Other academic publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil war</span> War within a country

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state . The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies. The term is a calque of Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic conflict</span> Conflict between ethnic groups

An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within society. This criterion differentiates ethnic conflict from other forms of struggle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peacekeeping</span> Activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace

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A failed state is a state that has lost its effective ability to govern its populace. A failed state maintains legal sovereignty but experiences a breakdown in political power, law enforcement, and civil society, leading to a state of near-anarchy.

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The Logic of Violence in Civil War is a book which challenges the conventional view of violence in civil wars as irrational. The book presents a theory for levels of violence, as well as why selective violence and indiscriminate violence are at varying times employed in civil wars. He argues that higher levels of violence happen in territory under near-hegemonic rule, as opposed to completely fragmented territory or fully controlled territory. He argues that violence will tend towards being indiscriminate in territory under fragmented control but be selective in territory under near-hegemonic control.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Security studies</span>

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Kimberly Marten is an author and scholar specializing in international security, foreign policy, Russia, and environmental politics. She held the 5-year-term Ann Whitney Olin Professorship of Political Science at Barnard College from 2013 to 2018, and then returned to chair the Barnard Political Science Department for a second time from 2018-2021. She was the director of the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute from 2015 to 2019, and the Harriman Institute published a profile of her career. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and a frequent media commentator.

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References

  1. Toft, M. (2003). Indivisible Territory and Ethnic War. In The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory (pp. 17-33)https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7650.html
  2. "Monica Duffy Toft". Berkleycenter.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  3. 1 2 Toft, M.D.: The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory. (eBook and Paper). Press.princeton.edu. 2014-01-14. ISBN   9780691123837 . Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  4. "Ivan Arreguin-Toft » International Relations | Boston University". Bu.edu. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  5. Political Demography - Paperback - Jack A. Goldstone; Eric P. Kaufmann - Oxford University Press. Global.oup.com. 2011-12-31. ISBN   9780199945962 . Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  6. Shah, Timothy Samuel; Stepan, Alfred; Toft, Monica Duffy (2012-02-29). Rethinking Religion and World Affairs - Google Books. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN   9780199827978 . Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  7. Toft, Monica Duffy; Philpott, Daniel; Shah, Timothy Samuel (2011-03-14). God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics - Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, Timothy Samuel Shah - Google Books. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   9780393911947 . Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  8. Toft, Monica Duffy (2009-10-26). Securing the Peace: The Durable Settlement of Civil Wars - Monica Duffy Toft - Google Books. Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-1400831999 . Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  9. Imlay, Talbot C.; Toft, Monica Duffy (2007-01-24). The Fog of Peace and War Planning: Military and Strategic Planning Under ... - Google Books. Routledge. ISBN   9781134210886 . Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  10. Toft, Monica Duffy; Zhukov, Yuri M. (2012-11-01). "Denial and punishment in the North Caucasus". Journal of Peace Research. 49 (6): 785–800. doi:10.1177/0022343312448389. S2CID   53643333.
  11. Toft, Monica Duffy (31 July 2012). "Self-Determination, Secession, and Civil War". Terrorism and Political Violence. 24 (4): 581–600. doi:10.1080/09546553.2012.700617. S2CID   144140283 . Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  12. Monica Duffy Toft (2012-03-01). "Demography and national security: The politics of population shifts in contemporary Israel". International Area Studies Review. 15: 21–42. doi:10.1177/2233865912438161. S2CID   154956979.
  13. Monica Duffy Toft (2011). "International Security : Civil Was Settlements and the Prospects for Peace". International Security. 36: 202–210. doi:10.1162/ISEC_c_00049. hdl: 2263/18225 . S2CID   57565709.
  14. Monica Duffy Toft (2010). "International Security : Ending Civil Wars : A Case for Rebel Victory?". International Security. 34 (4): 7–36. doi:10.1162/isec.2010.34.4.7. S2CID   42544469.
  15. Weidmann, Nils B.; Duffy Toft, Monica (2010-04-01). "Promises and Pitfalls in the Spatial Prediction of Ethnic Violence". Conflict Management and Peace Science. 27 (2): 159–176. doi:10.1177/0738894209359119. S2CID   142877783.
  16. Monica Duffy Toft (2007). "International Interactions : Empirical and Theoretical Research in International Relations : Population Shifts and Civil War : A Test of Power". International Interactions. 33 (3): 243–269. doi:10.1080/03050620701449025. S2CID   214652388.
  17. Monica Duffy Toft (2007). "International Security : Getting Religion ? The Puzzling Case of Islam and Civil War". International Security. 31 (4): 97–131. doi:10.1162/isec.2007.31.4.97. S2CID   57567562.
  18. Monica Duffy Toft (2007-04-01). "The Myth of the Borderless World: Refugees and Repatriation Policy". Conflict Management and Peace Science. 24 (2): 139–157. doi:10.1080/07388940701257549. S2CID   220778976.
  19. Monica Duffy Toft (2006). "Issue Indivisibility and Time Horizons as Rationalist Explanations for War". Security Studies. 15 (1): 34–69. doi:10.1080/09636410600666246. S2CID   144091813.
  20. Duffy, Monica (2011-07-07). "The State of the Field: Demography and War". Wilson Center. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  21. Monica Duffy Toft (2002). "Indivisible territory, geographic concentration, and ethnic war". Security Studies. 12 (2): 82–119. doi:10.1080/09636410212120010. S2CID   219718740.
  22. "Differential demographic growth in multinational states: Israel's two-front war. - Journal of International Affairs - Nbr. 561 - Author: Toft, Monica Duffy - Id 53093037 - vLex". Law-journals-books.vlex.com. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
  23. Monica Duffy Toft (2001). "Multinationality, Regions and State-Building : The Failed Transition in Georgia". Regional & Federal Studies. 11 (3): 123–142. doi:10.1080/714004709. S2CID   154657581.
  24. Monica Duffy Toft and David P. McIntyre (1992). "Adoption as an issue of local justice". European Journal of Sociology. 33: 83–105. doi:10.1017/S0003975600006378. S2CID   145160467.