Civil warrior
Profile of Monica Toft
Tim Coates
Issue date: 12/6/06 Section: KSG News
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It's compelling to see a Kennedy School professor get mad about Iraq.
The day before the mid-term elections, Sebastian Mallaby wrote in his regular Washington Post column: "after tomorrow…the nation will face an agonizing choice between soldiering on, scaling back or pulling out. It should begin by considering the leading authorities on civil wars."
Mallaby's column suggested that future Iraq policy should be shaped around the leading academic literature on civil wars. Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy and civil wars expert, found his suggestion critically misleading. She believes the leading research on civil wars addresses only a fraction of the Iraq problem and will lead Iraq policymakers to focus too heavily on the negotiated settlement aspect of civil war management.
"It pissed me off," says Toft. Having never met the columnist, she called Mallaby up and gave him "lots of fodder for future columns."
Toft hung up the phone and started thinking she should be the one writing future columns on the subject. After all, she has spent her academic lifetime thinking about civil wars. A week later, Toft published a much-read rejoinder in the Post that emphasized the need for a more comprehensive approach to Iraq.
Since its appearance, "reporters have called and asked if I'm on the Baker Commission," she says with a wry smile. "No," she quipped, "they don't even know I exist."
Toft is a rarity at KSG: a non-economist, tenured female faculty member with military experience. One of six children growing up in Long Island, Toft joined the US military at age 17 after being a language junkie in high school who learned Russian, Spanish and French.
On military assignment she was a Russian voice interceptor in West Germany from 1983 to 1987. "It was a great assignment. I basically listened to what the Soviets were saying in Eastern Europe. It was a pretty serious time."
Toft then received a BA from UC Santa Barbara ("Yes it's a party school but it's a wonderful place to live"), a PhD from the University of Chicago, and finally turned to KSG, where this semester she teaches ISP-409 Civil War: Theory and Policy. When asked why she chose to study something as gruesome as war, Toft was amused.
The day before the mid-term elections, Sebastian Mallaby wrote in his regular Washington Post column: "after tomorrow…the nation will face an agonizing choice between soldiering on, scaling back or pulling out. It should begin by considering the leading authorities on civil wars."
Mallaby's column suggested that future Iraq policy should be shaped around the leading academic literature on civil wars. Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy and civil wars expert, found his suggestion critically misleading. She believes the leading research on civil wars addresses only a fraction of the Iraq problem and will lead Iraq policymakers to focus too heavily on the negotiated settlement aspect of civil war management.
"It pissed me off," says Toft. Having never met the columnist, she called Mallaby up and gave him "lots of fodder for future columns."
Toft hung up the phone and started thinking she should be the one writing future columns on the subject. After all, she has spent her academic lifetime thinking about civil wars. A week later, Toft published a much-read rejoinder in the Post that emphasized the need for a more comprehensive approach to Iraq.
Since its appearance, "reporters have called and asked if I'm on the Baker Commission," she says with a wry smile. "No," she quipped, "they don't even know I exist."
Toft is a rarity at KSG: a non-economist, tenured female faculty member with military experience. One of six children growing up in Long Island, Toft joined the US military at age 17 after being a language junkie in high school who learned Russian, Spanish and French.
On military assignment she was a Russian voice interceptor in West Germany from 1983 to 1987. "It was a great assignment. I basically listened to what the Soviets were saying in Eastern Europe. It was a pretty serious time."
Toft then received a BA from UC Santa Barbara ("Yes it's a party school but it's a wonderful place to live"), a PhD from the University of Chicago, and finally turned to KSG, where this semester she teaches ISP-409 Civil War: Theory and Policy. When asked why she chose to study something as gruesome as war, Toft was amused.
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