New Publication: Correspondence Article on Barbara Walter's 'The Extremist's Advantage in Civil Wars

Kai Thaler and I have written a short correspondence article, which has just been published in published in International Security (vol.43, issue 1), on Barbara Walter's 'The Extremist's Advantage in Civil Wars'. Though Walter's article advances a growing literature on ideology's role in armed conflict, we suggest that her argument paints an excessively instrumental picture of ideology's role, and implausibly claims that extremist ideologies thrive because they attract moderate support.

The correspondence, alongside another letter on Walter's paper by Max Abrahms, can be found here (journal access required):

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/isec_c_00324