Dr Walter C Ladwig III is a political scientist specialising in US foreign policy, South Asian security, irregular warfare, and the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. His teaching primarily concentrates on the conduct of statecraft and Cold War history. His first book, The Forgotten Front: Patron-Client Relationships in Counter Insurgency (Cambridge 2017), examines the often-difficult relations between the US and local governments it is supporting in counterinsurgency. He is currently writing a book on Indian defence policy.

Walter’s scholarly works have been published in a number of academic journals including International Security, the Journal of Strategic Studies, and Asian Survey, among others. He has commented on international affairs for the Economist, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, and the BBC and his opinion pieces have appeared in a number of newspapers including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

In September 2013, Walter joined King’s from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford where he was a Departmental Lecturer, teaching courses on insurgency, terrorism, Cold War history, and research methods.

Walter is a Senior Fellow with the South Asia program at the EastWest Institute in New York and an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London. He previously held fellowships at the RAND Corporation in Washington, DC, the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania.

Qualifications:

• PhD International Relations, University of Oxford
• Masters in Public Affairs (MPA), Princeton University
• BA Economics and International Relations (dual degrees), the University of Southern California.

Visit his personal website 

 

Research Interests

• US foreign policy and defence politics
• South Asian security
• Irregular warfare and counterinsurgency
• The geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific
• Military strategy
• Legislative behavior in developing democracies

Walter has two main research programs, one exploring intra-state conflict, and the other focusing on the political and military implications of India’s emergence as great power.  In addition, he has a minor line of research exploring legislative behavior in developing democracies.

 

Teaching

Module Convener:

• 4SSW1007 History of the International System
• 5SSW2062 Statecraft, War, and Diplomacy

Dr Ladwig is currently not taking on any new PhD students

 

Publications

Books

• The Forgotten Front: Patron-Client Relations in Counterinsurgency (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Edited Volumes

• “On the U.S.-India Partnership,” special issue of Asia Policy, Vol. 14, No. 1 (January 2019). (with Anit Mukherjee)

Research Articles

• “Executive Particularism and Ministerial Selection in India,” Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 3 (July 2020). 
• “Executive Particularism and Ministerial Selection in India,” Legislative Studies Quarterly, forthcoming.
• “India and the United States: The Contours of an Asian Partnership,” Asia Policy, Vol. 14, No. 1 (January 2019). (with Anit Mukherjee).
• “Influencing Clients in Counterinsurgency: U.S. Involvement in El Salvador’s Civil War, 1979–92,” International Security, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Summer 2016).
• “Indian Military Modernization and Conventional Deterrence in South Asia,” Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 38, No. 4 (2015).
• “A Cold Start for Hot Wars? The Indian Army’s New Limited War Doctrine,” International Security, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Winter 2007/08).

Book Chapters

• “Nuclear Coercion: Evaluating Insights from Academic Scholarship” in Prakash Menon and Aditya Ramanathan, eds., The Sheathed Sword: From Nuclear Brink to No First Use (Oxford: Bloomsbury, 2022).
• “Strengthening Partners to Keep the Peace: A Neo-Nixon Doctrine for the Indian Ocean” in Peter Dombrowski and Andrew C. Winner, eds., The Indian Ocean and US Grand Strategy Ensuring Access and Promoting Security (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2014).
• “When the Police are the Problem: The Philippine Constabulary and the Huk Rebellion” in C. Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly, eds., Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
• “The Military Geography of Diego Garcia: Future Implications for U.S. Power Projection in the Indian Ocean,” in Carnes Lord and Andrew S. Erickson, eds., U.S. Basing and Presence in the Asia-Pacific (Newport, RI: Naval Institute Press, 2014).(with Andrew S. Erickson and Justin D. Mikolay)
• “Drivers of Indian Naval Expansion,” in Harsh Pant, ed., The Rise of the Indian Navy: Internal Vulnerabilities, External Challenges (Ashgate, 2012).
• “Looking East 2 (East Asia/Australasia)” in David Scott, ed., A Handbook of India’s International Relations (London: Routledge, 2011).
• “Insights from the Northeast: Counterinsurgency in Nagaland and Mizoram,” in David P. Fidler and Sumit Ganguly, eds., India and Counterinsurgency: Lessons Learned (London: Routledge, 2009).

For a full list of publications please see Dr Ladwig's Research Profile