Tanisha Fazal is an American political scientist. She is Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, where she joined the faculty in 2017.^[1] She was previously a professor at the University of Notre Dame and Columbia University.^[1] She is the author of the books State Death: The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation^[2] and Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the Regulation of Armed Conflict.^[1][3] Some of her notable research findings include that violent state death has been exceedingly rare since the end of World War II,^[4] states rarely declare war,^[3][5] and that improvements in battlefield medicine have led to dramatic reductions in battlefield deaths.^[6][7][8] She was awarded a prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship for 2021-2023.^[9]

In 2001, she was awarded her PhD in Political Science from Stanford University.^[1] Her dissertation advisors included Scott Sagan and Stephen Krasner.^[10] She has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. She was influenced by Louise Richardson.^[3][10] She was a Postdoc at the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Cambridge, MA.