Professor Barbara F Walter to present 2018 Cyril Foster Lecture
Barbara F Walter, Professor of Political Science at UC San Diego, will deliver this year's Cyril Foster Lecture on 'The New New Civil Wars' on Thursday 17 May.
Professor Walter will discuss the new trend in civil wars: after declining in the 1990s, the number of active civil wars has almost tripled since 2003. This increase is likely partly the result of the new and evolving IT environment as we now live in a world of social networking and cloud computing where anyone with a smartphone can easily produce and disseminate material from almost anywhere on the globe. Professor Walter will outline the five big ways the internet is likely to change political protest and violence around the world and what countries like the UK can do about it.
The Cyril Foster Lecture is the University's principal annual guest lecture in the field of International Relations. Since its inception in 1960, the lecture series has attracted a wide range of internationally-renowned speakers, from the worlds of politics, policy and academia. Professor Walter is a leading expert on international security, with an emphasis on civil wars.
The talk will take place in the Lecture Theatre at the Department of Politics and International Relations on Thursday 17 May at 5pm, and is free to attend. Places should be reserved through Eventbrite.
On 18 May, the lecture and key themes will be discussed by a panel of Oxford academics and Prof Barbara Walter: register separately for Panel Discussion: Political Violence and Extremism.
