Risa Brooks is the Allis-Chalmers Professor in the Department of Political Science at Marquette University. Her research focuses on international security, US and comparative civil-military relations, and militant organizations, with a specific geographic expertise in the armed forces of the Middle East and North Africa.
At Kellogg, her research project, “Politicization of the Military in Eroding Democracies,” explores how leaders in declining democracies seek to internally politicize the military to turn it into a partisan ally, thereby advancing or ensuring complicity in democratic backsliding. Her research examines these dynamics across diverse regions and levels of democratic development, featuring specific cases such as India, the United States, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, and the Philippines.
A prolific scholar, Brooks has authored and edited several influential books in her field, including Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: Society, Politics and Modern War (Oxford University Press, 2021), Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment (Princeton University Press, 2008), and Creating Military Power: The Sources of Military Effectiveness (Stanford University Press, 2007). Her work is also frequently featured in prominent academic and policy-oriented publications, such as Foreign Affairs, International Security, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and the Journal of Strategic Studies.
In addition to her university appointment, she holds several prestigious fellowships, serving as a Senior Fellow at the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy, a Non-Resident Fellow at New America, and a Non-Resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is also highly active in professional service, having held editorial roles for journals such as Security Studies, International Security, and Armed Forces & Society.
Brooks holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, San Diego.