Fellow, Climate and Security Program

V. Page Fortna is the Harold Brown Professor of US Foreign and Security Policy in the
Political Science Department at Columbia University, and the Director of the Arnold A.
Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. Her research focuses on terrorism, the
durability of peace in the aftermath of both civil and interstate wars, war termination, and
increasingly on the international politics of climate change. 

She is the author of two books: Does Peacekeeping Work? Shaping Belligerents Choices after Civil War (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Peace Time: Cease-Fire Agreements and the Durability of Peace (Princeton University Press, 2004).  Fortna has published articles in journals such as International Organization, World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, and most recently:  “Is Terrorism Really a Weapon of the Weak? Testing the Conventional Wisdom.” Journal of Conflict Resolution. 67:4 2023.  She is currently writing a book on terrorism in civil wars, and a paper on the consequences of climate change for power in the international system.  Her research combines quantitative and qualitative methods, draws on diverse theoretical approaches, and focuses on policy-relevant questions.  

Fortna was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.  She received the Karl Deutsch Award from the International Studies Association in 2010.  She has held fellowships at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the Hoover Institution and the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and at the Olin Institute at Harvard.  She teaches courses on the international politics of climate change, war termination and the durability of peace, terrorism, cooperation and security, and qualitative and mixed research methods, and advises dissertations and theses on a wide range of international relations topics.

Fortna holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University.  She lives in New York, and sometimes in Portland OR, with her husband, the artist Pete Beeman, their two daughters, and their dog.