"Using comprehensive data on internal conflicts, Toft challenges the flawed assumptions driving international peacemaking diplomacy and peacekeeping operations, which sadly may be prolonging civil wars instead of ending them. This provocative and politically incorrect book ought to stimulate a long-needed debate over the efficacy of current approaches to ending conflicts."--Andrew Natsios, Georgetown University

"This well-researched book makes an incredibly important contribution to our understanding of civil war termination and recurrence. While we have known for some time that military victory leads to more decisive and lasting cessations of violence, it was not clear why. Toft addresses these questions and persuasively demonstrates that the key to long-lasting peace lies in the reform of the security sector."--Stephen Saideman, McGill University

"An impressive book, Securing the Peace breaks new ground in the important area of civil war settlements. Toft reaches new and counterintuitive conclusions based on the analysis of quantitative data and case studies, and brings us forward in our understanding of this critical issue."--Roy Licklider, Rutgers University

Monica Duffy Toft is associate professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She is the author of The Geography of Ethnic Violence (Princeton).