Monica Duffy Toft

Monica Duffy Toft is a Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before joining Fletcher, Professor Monica Duffy Toft taught at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, she directed the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs and was the assistant director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. She was educated at the University of Chicago (MA and Ph.D. in political science) and at the University of California, Santa Barbara (BA in political science and Slavic languages and literature, summa cum laude). Prior to this, she spent four years in the United States Army as a Russian linguist. Monica’s areas of research include international security, ethnic and religious violence, civil wars and demography. Her recent books include: Securing the Peace, (Princeton); Political Demography, (Oxford); and God’s Century, (Norton). In addition she has published numerous scholarly articles and editorials on civil wars, territory and nationalism, demography, and religion in global politics. Monica can also be found on Twitter @monicaduffytoft. Affiliations: Monica is a research associate of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is a supernumerary fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, a Global Scholar of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Political Instability Task Force. In 2008 the Carnegie Foundation of New York named her a Carnegie Scholar for her research on religion and violence, in 2012 she was named a Fulbright scholar, and most recently served as the World Politics Fellow at Princeton University.

Research/Areas of Interest:

• US foreign and national security policy
• Interstate and Civil wars
• Territory and nationalism
• Demography
• Religion in global politics

Education

• PhD, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States, 1998
• MA, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States, 1992
• BA, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States, 1990
• AA, Univerity of Maryland, Germany, 1987

Tufts University Appointments

• Professor
  Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1 Feb 2017 - present
• Director, Center for Strategic Studies
  Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1 Feb 2017 - present

Academic Positions

• Professor of Government and Public Policy
  University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom 1 Jan 2012 - 1 Jan 2017
• Professor of Strategy
  Naval War College, Newport, United States 1 Oct 2016 - 1 Jan 2017
• Associate Professor
  Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, United States 1 Jul 2004 - 31 Aug 2012
• Assistant Professor
  Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, United States 1 Jul 2022 - 30 Jun 2022
• Preceptor
  The University of Chicago, Committee on International Relations, Chicago, United States 1 Jun 1994 - 30 Jun 1998

Non-academic Positions

• Sergeant
  United States Army 14 Jul 1983 - 13 Jul 1987