Antonia Handler was born in New York City on July 21, 1929.^[1] She married Abram Chayes on December 24, 1947; they had five children, including journalist Sarah Chayes. She was educated at Radcliffe College, receiving a B.A. in 1950.^[2] She then attended Yale Law School before transferring to the Georgetown University Law Center and receiving her law degree in 1953.^[1]

From 1959 to 1961, Chayes was executive assistant to Erwin Griswold, the Dean of Harvard Law School.^[1] In 1961, she joined the staff of the White House, where she worked drafting correspondence.^[1] She was then a consultant to a Baltimore community development firm 1962-63, and a social science adviser to the National Institute of Mental Health 1964-65.^[1] From 1966 to 1968, she was director of education and urban development for the Model Cities Program's Action for Boston Community Development program.^[1] In 1968, she became the dean of the Jackson College for Women (later incorporated into Tufts University).^[1] From 1970 to 1972, she was an associate professor of political science at Tufts.^[1] Chayes then spent 1972-73 as the law clerk of Judge Charles Edward Wyzanski Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.^[1] In 1974, she joined the Boston law firm of Csaplar & Bok as a partner.^[1]

In 1977, President of the United States Jimmy Carter nominated Chayes to be Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Manpower and Reserve Affairs).^[1] She held this position until 1979, when she became United States Under Secretary of the Air Force, a position she held until 1981.^[3]

Chayes joined the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1981, teaching there until 2003.^[3] There, she became Chair of the Project on Compliance and International Conflict Management at the Program on Negotiation.^[3] She also served on the Board of Directors of the United Technologies Corporation from 1981 to 2002. She also continued to practice law with Csaplar & Bok.^[3] In 2003, she became Professor of Practice of International Politics and Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.^[3]

• with Paul M. Doty, Defending Deterrence: Managing the ABM Treaty Regime Into the 21st Century (Brassey's, 1989).
• with Abram Chayes, The New Sovereignty: Compliance with International Regulating Agreements (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).
• with George T. Raach, eds., Peace Operations: Developing an American Strategy (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1995).
• with Abram Chayes, Preventing Conflict in the Post-Communist World: Mobilizing International and Regional Organizations (Washington, DC: Brookings, 1996).
• with Abram Chayes, Alexei Arbatov, and Lara Olson, eds., Managing Conflict in the Former Soviet Union (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997).
• with Abram Chayes, Planning for Intervention: International Cooperation in Conflict Management (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999).
• with Martha Minow, eds., Imagine Coexistence: Restoring Humanity After Violent Conflict (San Francisco, CA: 2003).
• "How American Treaty Behavior Threatens National Security" in 33 International Security 45 (2008).
• Borderless Wars: Civil Military Disorder and Legal Uncertainty (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015).