Few people can say that they have been asked, in all seriousness, for advice on how to overthrow a government. Or that their research was debated in British Parliament. Or that NATO has invited them to give a lecture on the promotion of religious tolerance. Fewer still can say that they accomplished all of this before their thirtieth birthday.
For Professor of Government Erica Chenoweth, each of these accomplishments was borne of a lifelong obsession with politics, international security and terrorism. As a 13 year-old growing up in Dayton, Ohio during the height of the crisis in the Balkans, Chenoweth began reading “Zlata’s Diary.” The book, an international sensation, is the published diary of 13-year old Zlata Filipovic who lived through the siege of Sarajevo.
“I remember reading this book that was written by a girl who was the same age as me, and it affected me so deeply that I was instantly hooked onto issues of security from a young age,” Chenoweth said.
Spurred on by this newfound interest, Chenoweth stood at the end of her lunch line everyday, collecting change from other middle schoolers for Balkan relief efforts. She raised $5,000, an amount she convinced AmeriCorps to match. Chenoweth also became fascinated with other political and historical issues, particularly World War I.
While attending college in Dayton, a city that gained international attention as the site of the Dayton Peace Accords, Chenoweth came in contact with many delegates from the region with which she had long held an interest.
Every year after the accords were signed, a Peace Accord workshop was held, in which delegates from the former Yugoslavian countries would convene to evaluate peace in their region. Chenoweth worked as a driver for the workshop, and through driving the delegates to air bases and meetings, got to know many of them very well.
“As an undergraduate, I also took classes on terrorism, political violence and ethnic conflict, which I think mixed well with my experiences with the Dayton delegates, Chenoweth said. “I began to be interested in finding solutions to these problems that I was learning about, and trying to figure out why people resort to violence so often.”
Chenoweth’s interest in terrorism was first piqued by the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings, and led to her graduate work at the University of Colorado. In her doctoral dissertation, Chenoweth found that democracies are actually fertile ground for terrorism. Her findings will soon be published in a book that is tentatively entitled “Why Democracy Encourages Terrorism.”
Another of Chenoweth’s current academic focuses is non-violent movements, an interest that developed a workshop affiliated with the International Center on Non-Violent Conflict during her last year at graduate school.
“When I was at this workshop, I was amazed that I had never even heard of the authors because their field was so separate from my own, security studies,” she said. “I think this separation exists because when people hear the word ‘non-violent’ they think ‘weak’ and ‘pacifist,’ which is strange, because non-violence is actually among one of the most disruptive tactics one can employ.”
Chenoweth was surprised to find out that non-violence has a much higher success rate than violent insurgencies.
“I have studied non-violent movements that have emerged and succeeded in the most repressive situations, and I’m no longer convinced that violence is the only resort for non-state actors,” Chenoweth said. “I’m not a pacifist, but I’m interested in what works, and it is clear that even in situations where violent insurgencies worked, non-violence would have worked better.”
Her non-violence research resulted in two book projects: the first, “Rethinking Violence: State and Non-state Actors in Conflict,” is currently under review at MIT press, and the second, “The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict” is co-authored with Maria J. Stephan and will be completed in spring 2010.
Although Chenoweth only began teaching last fall, she has quickly adjusted to the University. She has set up Wesleyan’s Program on Terrorism and Insurgency Research, which is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The program involves a number of University undergraduates in important research related to the program.
Through her work with the program, as well as teaching, Chenoweth has been very impressed with her students.
“I have learned so much from my researchers and, beyond the program, students in my classes always come well-prepared, and have great analytical skills,” she said. “They are able to take empirical knowledge and really fit it into the world. Wesleyan students are very critical and really want to know what’s wrong and what can be done better.”
Despite her packed schedule, which also includes policy consulting, Chenoweth still finds the time to pursue other longstanding passions, including opera. Chenoweth’s parents both played in the orchestra for the Santa Fe opera, where she worked during the summers. Chenoweth grew up surrounded by music, and plays the French horn, guitar, percussions, and can also sing opera.
In addition to music, she also enjoys Western trout fishing, and was even a fly-fishing guide while she was in graduate school.
Chenoweth credits her ability to juggle all her interests to the University’s treatment of its faculty.
“One of the great things about Wesleyan is that treat their professors like research faculty,” she said. “Wesleyan’s scholar-teacher model is a great fit for me, because I get to do the research that I love, engage with talented students about topics that most interest me, and somehow find the time to pursue some of my other interests as well.”
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