our first guest is one of the people who started this public discussion with the publication of her new book "how civil wars start." barbara f. walter is a professor of international relations at the school of global policy and strategy at the university of california san diego. she studied at harvard's institute for strategic studies in colombia university's war and peace institute and she served on an advisory committee to the cia called the political instability task force. that group ranks countries around the world on a scale with fully functioning democracy at one end and dictatorship at the other end. the united states always had the highest positive score for democracy a plus ten but it has slipped down the scale recently to a plus five. that moved the united states into the zone that this scale