Virginia Page Fortna

Department of Political Science
Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
Columbia University

International Affairs Builidng, 13th Floor
420 W 118th Street
New York NY 10027
tel  212.854.0021
fax 212.864.1686
vpf4@columbia.edu

Academic Positions

Columbia University, Department of Political Science. 
   Assistant Professor in International Relations. (1999 - present).

Stanford University, Hoover Institution
   W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow (2004 - 2005)

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge Mass.
   Visiting Scholar. (2002-2003)

Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation.
   Post-Doctoral Fellow. (1998 - 1999).

The Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington, DC.
   Research Assistant (1990 - 1992).

Education

Harvard University, Deptartment of Government, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. (1992 -1998).
Ph.D. November 1998, concentration in International Relations.
Dissertation: A Peace That Lasts: Agreements and the Durability of Peace awarded “best dissertation” in deptartment.
Committee:   Robert Keohane (Chair), Lisa Martin, Celeste Wallander, Christopher Gelpi.
A.M. June 1995.

Wesleyan University (1986 - 1990). 
B.A. June 1990.
High Honors from the Department of Government, concentration in International Relations.

 Current Projects and Research Interests

The durability of peace in the aftermath of war
The effects of peacekeeping in civil wars
Historical changes in war termination
Theories of conflict and cooperation, particularly cooperation among adversaries

Publications

“Interstate Peacekeeping: Causal Mechanisms and Empirical Effects.” World Politics. Forthcoming, Vol. 56, No. 4 July 2004.

“Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace? International Intervention and the Duration of Peace after Civil War.” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 2, June 2004, pp. 269-92.

Peace Time: Cease-Fire Agreements and the Durability of Peace. Princeton University Press, 2004.

“Inside and Out: Peacekeeping and the Duration of Peace after Civil and Interstate Wars” in Suzanne Werner, David Davis, and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, eds. Dissolving Boundaries: the Nexus between Comparative Politics and International Relations. Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

             And in special issue of International Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 4, December 2003, pp. 97-114.

“Scraps of Paper? Agreements and the Durability of Peace” International Organization, Vol. 57, No. 2, Spring 2003, pp.337-72.

“A Lost Chance for Peace: The Bicesse Accords in Angola” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 4, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2003, pp. 73-9.

Book Review: “Peace Enforcement: The United Nations Experience in Congo, Somalia, and Bosnia” by Jane Boulden (Westport: Praeger, 2001) in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 117, No. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 163-4.

“Success and Failure in Southern Africa: Peacekeeping in Namibia and Angola,” in Donald Daniels and Bradd Hayes, eds. Beyond Traditional Peacekeeping, London: Macmillan, 1995.

 “United Nations Transition Assistance Group in Namibia,” “United Nations Angola Verification Mission I,” and “United Nations Angola Verification Mission II,” in William Durch, ed. The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping: Case Studies and Comparative Analysis, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.

  Working Papers

How Can Permanent Cessation of Civil Wars Be Achieved? Lessons from international conflict and a look at some African cases. Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 1997.  Presented to the Harvard-MIT MacArthur Transnational Security Project on Intergroup Conflict, Human Rights, and Refugees, Cambridge, MA, February 1997.

Regional Organizations and Peacekeeping. Occasional Paper No. 11, Washington, DC: The Henry L. Stimson Center, October 1992. 

 Invited Talks

“Where Have all the Victories Gone? War Outcomes in Historical Perspective”
Deptartment of Political Science, UCLA, May 2004.
and Conference on Order, Conflict, and Violence, Yale University, April / May 2004.

 “Peacekeeping and the Peacekept: Maintaining Peace in the Aftermath of Civil War”
Department of Political Science Rutgers University, April 2004.

 “The Rising Tie? War Outcomes in Historical Perspective”
Junior Faculty Workshop on Intervention, Georgetown University, October 2003.

 “Sierra Leone: Keeping the Peace and Rebuilding the State.”
Workshop on How to Build a State, Center for International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University, May 2003.

“Forever Hold Your Peace? International Peacekeeping in Civil Wars.”
            Center for International Studies, Princeton University, March 2003.
             and Deptartment of Political Science, Emory University, April 2003.

“What do We Know from the Numbers? The Quantitative Literature on Civil and Interstate Wars.”
Workshop on Combating Political Violence, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, April 2003

 “An Assessment of Peacekeeping in Civil Wars.”
Research Seminar, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, March 2003.

 “Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace After Civil Wars? And if So, How?”
Pacific Northwest Colloquia in International Security (PNCIS), University of Washington, Seattle, November 2002.

 “Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace? International Intervention and the Duration of Peace after Civil Wars.”
Department of Political Science, Yale University, April 2002.
Olin Institute, Harvard University, April 2002.

“Agreements: Epiphenomenal or Functional?”
             PIPES, University of Chicago, March 2000.

 “Scraps of Paper: Agreements and the Durability of Peace.”
Department of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, October 1998.

 “How Can Permanent Cessation of Civil Wars Be Achieved?”
Harvard-MIT MacArthur Transnational Security Project on Intergroup Conflict, Human Rights, and Refugees, Cambridge, MA, February 1997.

 “Agreements and the Durability of Peace.”
Center for International Affairs / Arbeitsstelle Transatlantishe Aussen- und Sicherheitspolitik Conference on Security Institutions, Berlin, May 1996.

 Conference Papers

“Where Have all the Victories Gone?”
                American Politcal Science Association, Chicago, September 2004
                and International Studies Association, Montreal, March 2004

“War Termination in Historical Perspective.”
American Political Science Association meetings, Philadelphia, August 2003.

“Forever Hold Your Peace? International Peacekeeping in Civil Wars.”
International Studies Association meetings, Portland, February 2003.

“Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace? And if So, How?”
American Political Science Association meetings, Boston, August / September 2002.

“Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace? International Intervention and the Duration of Peace after Civil War.”
International Studies Association meetings, New Orleans, March 2002.

“Scraps of Paper: Agreements and the Durability of Peace.”
International Studies Association meetings, New Orleans, March 2002.
and American Political Science Association, Boston, September 1998.

“The Peacekeeping Puzzle: Causal Mechanisms and Empirical Effects.”
International Studies Association meetings, Los Angeles, March 2000.

“Achieving Durable Peace after Civil War.”
American Political Science Association meetings, Boston, September 1998.

“Cease-Fire Agreements and Durable Peace.”
American Political Science Association meetings, San Francisco, September 1996.

“A Peace that Lasts: Agreements and the Construction of Durable Peace.”
International Studies Association meetings, San Diego, April 1996.

Workshops Organized

Columbia University International Politics Seminar (CUIPS).
Founded and organized with Tanisha Fazal and Erik Gartzke. Fall 2002 - present. Funded by the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and the Political Science Dept.

“Peacekeeping and Politics”
October 17, 2002, Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University. Co-organized with Kimberly Zisk Marten of Barnard College. Sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

"The Effectiveness of the New Peacekeeping"
November 10, 2000, Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University. Co-organized with Kimberly Zisk of Barnard College. Sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Policy Outreach and Mass Media

The Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change. Roundtable Discussion on Intervention in Humanitarian Crises. Sponsored by the Stanley Foundation and the United Nations Foundation, Harriman, NY, March 2004.

“Peace Operations – Futile or Vital?” Policy Brief commissioned by the United Nations Foundation. January 2004.

“The War on Terrorism: Two Years On” with Robert Jervis and Warner Schilling.
Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, September 11, 2003.

 Radio Show: “Conceptualizing Peace” with Bruce Russett and Carolyn Stephenson.
Odyssey WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, May 5, 2003

 Roundtable on “Pragmatic Multilateralism: Strategies for Engagement in an Age of Interdependence.”
Council on Foreign Relations Term Members Report.  pdf file

 Editorial: “Kosovo Endgame” co-authored with Lise Howard, San Jose Mercury News April 11, 1999.

Data

Cease-Fires Data Set.
Comprehensive data on cease-fires, cease-fire agreements, and the durability of peace in interstate wars (1946 - 1948). Time-constant and time-varying covariate versions.
Data Notes        Time-Constant Data         Time-Varying Data

 War Termination in Historical Perspective.
Data on the military and political outcome of interstate wars (1816 - 2000). Under construction.

Courses Taught

“International Politics.”
            Undergraduate introduction to the field.

“Ending Wars and Keeping Peace.”
             Upper level undergraduate research and writing seminar.

“Colloquium on Cooperation and Security.”
Advanced graduate level course on theories of cooperation and applications in security studies.

“Theory Building and Comparative Methods.”
(Co-taught with Jack Snyder). Graduate level course in research methods, particularly qualitative methods.

“Middle East Initiative on Jerusalem.”
Undergraduate independent study – collaborative research paper by a Jewish-American and a Palestinian-Jordanian student (Spring 2000).

“Introduction to Quantitative Methods.” (Teaching Fellow)
                Harvard University (Fall 1994).
  

Honors, Grants and Fellowships

Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Susan Loise Dyer Peace Fellow, W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellowship (2004 - 2005)

American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Visiting Scholarship (inaugural year of program) (2002 - 2003).

Carnegie Corporation of New York. “Effectiveness of International Intervention to Maintain Peace: the New Peacekeeping”
with Kimberly Zisk Marten (September 2000 - May 2003) $171,300.

Carnegie Corporation grant renewed as “The New US “Imperialism”: Intervention, Self-Determination, and the Tools of Peace”
with Kimberly Marten, Tanisha Fazal, and Alex Cooley (May 2003 - May 2005) for an additional $156,200.

Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University. Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1998 - 1999).

Toppan Prize for best dissertation in Political Science. Department of Government, Harvard University (June 1999).

Hamburg “Preventing Deadly Conflict” Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Center for International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University (1997 - 1998).

Mellon Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Dept. of Government, Harvard University (Summer 1997).

Olin Institute for Strategic Studies Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Harvard University (1996 - 1997).

Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Merit Fellowship (May 1995).

MacArthur Predoctoral Fellowship, Harvard-MIT Program on Transnational Security (1995 - 1996).

Dwight D. Eisenhower/Thomas A. Pappas Graduate Fellowship (1995 - 1996).

High Honors from the Department of Government, Wesleyan University (Spring 1990). High Honors Thesis: “International Conflict Resolution in Namibia.”

Davenport Prize for excellence in the field of government and politics, Wesleyan University, Department of Government (Spring 1990).

Phi Beta Kappa (Fall 1989).

Departmental Service

Undergraduate Affairs Committee, (2003 - 2004).

Department Mini-APSA, Chair and Discussant, (Spring 2002).

Graduate Admissions Committee (2001 - 2002).

Faculty-Student Liaison Committee (2000 - 2001).

Dissertation Review Committee (1999 - 2000, and 2000 - 2001).

International Relations Junior Faculty Search Committee (1999 - 2000).

Quantitative Methods Committee (1999 - 2000).

Professional Activities

Faculty Fellow, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), Columbia University.

Term Member, Council on Foreign Relations.

Member, Women in International Security (WIIS).

Referee for:       American Political Science Review

European Journal of International Relations

International Organization

International Security

International Studies Quarterly

Journal of Conflict Resolution

Journal of Peace Research

Political Science Quarterly

United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)

Last updated September 22, 2004