Risa Brooks is Allis-Chalmers Professor of Political Science at Marquette University. Her primary research interests lie in questions related to U.S. and comparative civil-military relations, politicization of the military, strategic assessment and military professionalism.
At Kellogg, her 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.
She is the author and co-editor of several books, including Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment, and is the author of numerous articles in academic journals. In addition to her academic work, Brooks also engages the public through commentary in the press and in policy-oriented publications and also speaks to audiences of practitioners. Brooks formerly held positions as research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, UK, and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.
Brooks was recently named the Australian Army’s Keogh Chair for 2025. She is an inaugural member of the Security Engagement Practice Group (SEPG) of the Barcelona based Institute for Integrated Transitions and a non-resident fellow with the Future Security Program at New America.
Brooks holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, San Diego.