Abstract: The talk will review various issues regarding the role of the military in society and its relations with the public. It will also discuss factors that risk drawing the military into partisan politics and why that should be avoided.

Speaker:  Risa Brooks is Allis Chalmers Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, a senior fellow at West Point’s Modern War Institute (2017-2020), and a non-resident senior associate in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Professor Brooks is the author of Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment (Princeton University Press, 2008). She is also coeditor (with Lionel Beehner and Daniel Maurer) of Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: Politics, Society and Modern War (Oxford University Press) and coeditor (with Elizabeth Stanley) of Creating Military Power: The Sources of Military Effectiveness (Stanford University Press, 2007). She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and her professional experiences include positions as a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). She has served as associate editor for the academic journals International Security and Security Studies.  

Moderator:

Stefano Recchia, John G. Tower Distinguished Chair in International Politics and National Security, SMU