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Risa Brooks

@risabrooks12.bsky.social
15K followers 1.3K following 377 posts

Marquette Prof studying U.S. and comparative civil-military relations, political violence & armed forces in democracies and non-democracies.

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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
This is a very nuanced piece about veterans, military service and war. Gets at serious issues without being cliche about them. www.newyorker.com/news/the-pol...
newyorker.com
The Complications of Graham Platner’s Veteran Identity
How much of Graham Platner’s behavior should be read through the lens of what combat did to him, and how much of it is simply who he is, independent of war?
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I'm all for staying open to ideas from unconventional sources, but this is a truly crazy way to make strategy. www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/p...
cnn.com
Exclusive: US military asks troops for ‘creative and unconventional’ ideas to punish Iran | CNN Politics
The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump’s war with Iran came in an email: We need ideas.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
I appreciate @kschake.bsky.social's efforts to shed light on these vital issues, but I am less sanguine Politicization operates through multiple mechanisms not captured by analyzing the credentials or past partisan commentary of senior officers replacing those who have been fired. 1/
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Adding that there are many current and former professional officers in the U.S. military who are also very concerned about civilian-led efforts to promote partisanship in the ranks.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
As someone who studies politicization of democratic militaries this statement on X is a five- alarm fire. It creates an undeniable permission structure for overt partisan behavior by mil. It's part of a concerted effort by civilian leaders to turn the U.S. military into a partisan aligned force.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
A very thoughtful piece from @bradduplessis.bsky.social
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Caroline Baxter @convergingriskslab.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training for three years before the office was disestablished last year. I owned the policy on professional military education for all five services. I have listened to Secretary Hegseth's announcement. I have thoughts. 🧵
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
This is the logical endpoint of the Pentagon‘s current “lethality“ fixation - destroying things is the point. It also reflects its civilian leaders’ disregard, if not open contempt, for strategic thinking and the skills & intellectual preparation that support it.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Last week in class we talked about the possibility of an imminent war w/Iran. Most of my undergrads barely had it on their radar. I talked abt the GWOT wars & the lessons (not) learned. By the end of the class they were also pretty dismayed and many were filled w/ dread.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Really important questions.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
"Is [Hegseth] itching to get the U.S. military into the streets, to back up ICE’s undertrained civilians with professional soldiers and heavier hardware?" If T invokes Insurrection Act & sends mil to MN, as some allies have been pushing, what might happen?1/ www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
Pete Hegseth Should Stay Out of Minneapolis
By inserting himself into the situation in Minnesota, the secretary of defense is only making things worse.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
I increasingly wonder if US civ-mil is now operating in full Huntingtonian mode: civilians dictate political goals & mil leaders advise on technical/tactical options to implement them while siloed off from the political implications or wisdom of that advice. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
washingtonpost.com
Pentagon readies 1,500 soldiers to possibly deploy to Minnesota, officials say
Troops with the Army’s 11th Airborne Division in Alaska are preparing after President Donald Trump’s Insurrection Act threat, according to defense officials.
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fermat15.bsky.social @fermat15.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Mandatory reading for everyone across the DoD (and across the country, for that matter). Whether someone agrees or disagrees with it is beside the point. Things are far more likely to get worse before they get better. The fundamental question will then be whether or not we can ever recover.
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Andrew Ivey @drprofivey.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Hey, you! Do you worry about executive abuse of military authority, but need a framework to analyze it? Well stop *worrying.* My new article on "executive shirking" is out from Perspectives on Politics. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on this one! #civmilbluesky
cambridge.org
The Responsibility to Be Reasonable: Conceptualizing Executive Shirking in Civil–Military Relations | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core
The Responsibility to Be Reasonable: Conceptualizing Executive Shirking in Civil–Military Relations
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Sharing this recent podcast by me on how civil-military relations (ideally) should work in liberal democracies. See here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsma...
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
It's easy to see this speech as just weirdly performative, but there's a lot more—and a lot worse—going on here. The meeting & speeches are part of a larger project aimed at promoting the military leadership’s partisan alignment with the administration. How? 1/
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
The reason for military rules of engagement and adhering to laws of armed combat is not “political correctness,” it’s better strategy, serves long-term national interest, and is a way to make an awful part of the human experience a little less awful, based on lessons learned from centuries of blood.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
The public’s capacity to hold the military & its civilian ldrs accountable is a core principle of democratic control of the military. If Pentagon reporters can’t do their jobs, citizens won‘t have info they need to do their part Which may be the point here. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Pentagon demands journalists pledge to not obtain unauthorized material
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is imposing strict new rules that would severely limit the ability of journalists to report on the Pentagon.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I imagined that sooner or later we might see these kind of tensions emerging in the open. Wouldn‘t surprise me if there are growing and active efforts by pol ldrs to exploit such divisions in the ranks to break down nonpartisanship & lay groundwork for norms of partisan alignment to take hold
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
My take is that senior officers are completely unprepared for this moment. When demo is healthy, there is little tension btw adhering to civilian control & serving democracy Faced w/ the manifest clash in principles these missions present, they are doing what's familiar--following orders.1/
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
We are very alarmed.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Sending the Guard to police DC citizens politicizes the military--just like using it and active duty troops against protesters and in immigration and counter cartel missions does. This is no accident. It's part of a broader effort to transform the military into a partisan force.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
NYT reporting today that the admin. is planning to use the U.S. military ag/ cartels. This has actually been in the works for awhile as I argued in this Foreign Affairs piece from April. It's part of what I see as an effort to politicize the military and transform it into a partisan force. 1/
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Erik Ledbetter @bandoblue.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Some thoughts about the military parade in my hometown of Washington DC today -- specifically, the route. Military parades in DC are quite rare. But when they happen, they have always begun, symbolically and geographically, at the Capitol and moved outward. 1/
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Instructing soldiers not to hoot and clap like they are at a political rally when a president gives a speech is civil-military relations 101. Any officer should know this without even thinking about it.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
This is such a thoughtful piece.
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Jess Blankshain @profjessblankshain.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Learning more is not making it better. Shout out to @risabrooks12.bsky.social for insightful commentary. www.military.com/daily-news/2...
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Zachary Fryer-Biggs @zachfb.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Really important story - army officials asked soldiers to identify themselves if they don't agree with Trump's politics that way he'd get only supportive soldiers in uniform during his political rally on base. Heavier soldiers were also barred from participating.
military.com
Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance
As Trump viciously attacked his perceived political foes, he whipped up boos from the gathered troops directed at California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Yesterday was rough for U.S. civ-mil relations watchers. Most recent violations of the military's nonpartisan ethic have been instigated by civilian side (politicians). Clapping at Bragg came from breakdown on mil side. Let's hope mil leaders take it as a wake-up call & get their house in order.
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Jess Blankshain @profjessblankshain.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
To clarify, I'm not worried because this tells us something about the political views of "The Troops." I'm alarmed because of how many times/places professional norms had to break down for this to happen.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
There are reports that service members were vetted in advance to ensure they would go along. If true, that makes it even worse. It means those in charge were complicit in the breakdown of professional norms.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
This is not a good sign.
One day before the Trump administration deployed U.S. Marines to confront protesters in Los Angeles, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to direct the military to detain or arrest "lawbreakers," a move one expert called "a grave escalation."
A letter sent Sunday from Noem to Hegseth, obtained by the Chronicle, requested that the Pentagon give "Direction to DoD forces to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them."
The military is generally barred under federal laws from taking part in domestic law enforcement. Noem's request may be a step toward the administration sidestepping those laws by invoking the Insurrection Act, two legal experts said in interviews.In the letter, Noem referred to an "emergent Request for Assistance (RFA) to aid in resolving the situation in Los Angeles," and used strong language to describe what she said was the threat posed by people protesting a series of raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
"We need ... support to our law enforcement officers and agents across Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Federal Protective Services (FPS),"
Noem wrote, "as they defend against invasive, violent, insurrectionist mobs that seek to protect invaders and military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations, and who seek to prevent the deportation of criminal aliens."
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Russell the Love Muscle 💪 @rpg-volley.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
👋 Kent State grad here with 26+ years in the Guard and Reserve.
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Liza Goitein @lizagoitein.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Trump has federalized at least 2,000 National Guard forces and reportedly plans to deploy troops to Los Angeles over Governor Newsom’s objections. If that happens, it will be the first time since 1965 that a president has sent troops into a state without a state request. 1/19
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Sounds like they are laying the groundwork for sending active duty to the streets of LA and possibly beyond
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Carrie A Lee @carriealee.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
OK, I know more about the CA case and we have more information on the deployments coming out, so a few thoughts. 1. This is a massive overreach of POTUS authority. Using Section 12406 to federalize/deploy military forces w/out also invoking the Insurrection Act is literally unprecedented. 1/
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Seeing lots of discussion about whether the U.S. military will go along or push back against orders to confront mass protests. Here’s my take on what other cases and prior research tell us about what might happen. 1/
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thinkingbayonet.bsky.social @thinkingbayonet.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Once again, the real problem is when the orders are legal but unethical or immoral. The Army trains soldiers to refuse illegal orders. It does not train soldiers on parsing orders that are legal but unethical.
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
A crucial piece of reading as the federal government attempts to turn the California Army National Guard on its own residents (h/t @pamspaulding.bsky.social)
brennancenter.org
The President’s Power to Call Out the National Guard Is Not a Blank Check
Domestic deployment under Section 502(f) has its limits, and for good reason.
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Alberto Bueno @albertobueno.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Increased #US #military involvement in missions "at home", with explicit politicisation and the danger of militarisation, in exchange for more autonomy, less oversight of operations abroad. Broken guardrails By @risabrooks12.bsky.social @foreignaffairs.com #CMR www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
foreignaffairs.com
The Dangerous New Civil-Military Bargain
Trump’s demands for loyalty will weaken the U.S. armed forces.
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Foreign Affairs @foreignaffairs.com · 23/05/2025
If U.S. military leaders become subject to partisan litmus tests, they may “skew their views toward what the president wants to hear—rather than what objective assessments say—about the costs, risks, and benefits of military operations,” warns @risabrooks12.bsky.social.
foreignaffairs.com
The Dangerous New Civil-Military Bargain
Trump’s demands for loyalty will weaken the U.S. armed forces.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
I might add that this sort of comment by the local commander shows a lot of political naivete about how fraught the border mission could easily become in the eyes of the public.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
This apparent enthusiasm for domestic missions is striking & not what I would have expected. I wonder how widely held this view is within the U.S. military. “This is their mission for their generation, and they’re embracing it,” said Maj. Gen. Scott M. Naumann. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/u...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Military Buildup at the Border Expands
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
It strikes me that at some point the public is going to blame the U.S. military for implementing the admin's border policies. It won't matter to ppl that the mil is following civilian directives and that technically it is detaining not arresting migrants. www.texastribune.org/2025/05/02/t...
texastribune.org
U.S. declares military zone around El Paso, allowing soldiers to arrest migrants
It’s the second military zone the Trump administration has created at the border, following one on the New Mexico-Mexico border, where a group of migrants were arrested on Monday.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
More workarounds at the border to Posse Comitatus (the law largely prohibits the military playing domestic law enforcement roles). “Troops in Texas can now also detain trespassers, conduct searches, use crowd control measures and install barriers and signs." www.military.com/daily-news/2...
military.com
Military Takes Over Another Stretch of Public Border Land in Effort to Catch and Charge Migrants
Another stretch of federal land along the border has been transferred to the U.S. military, this time in Texas, expanding the territory in which troops can be used to apprehend migrants and the govern...
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
“The Trump administration has considered using drones to blow up fentanyl labs or using U.S. Special Forces to capture or kill drug bosses, according to people familiar with bilateral security discussions.” www.wsj.com/world/americ...
wsj.com
Exclusive | Trump, Mexico’s Sheinbaum Spar Over Drug Cartels
President Trump is pressuring Mexico to allow deeper U.S. military involvement in the fight against drug cartels.
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
We are now seeing the results of a significant decline in oversight and transparency in military operations combined with the civilian leadership’s permissive approach to civilian harm. Very dangerous. www.military.com/daily-news/2...
military.com
Reports of Civilian Deaths in Yemen Are Mounting. The Pentagon Is Remaining Mostly Silent. | Military.com
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Risa Brooks @risabrooks12.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
“rising civilian casualties raise questions about the U.S. military’s selection of targets to strike. The Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees the air campaign, has provided few details about its operations.” www.wsj.com/world/middle...
wsj.com
Houthis Say U.S. Airstrike in Yemen Killed Nearly 70 People in Migrant Detention Center
The death toll mounts from weekslong U.S. air campaign to deter rebel group’s strikes on ships in Red Sea.
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