Risa Brooks is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. She specializes in International Relations, with particular emphasis on civil-military relations, military effectiveness, Middle East politics and terrorist organizations.
She is the author of Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment (forthcoming, Princeton University Press), Political-Military Relations and the Stability of Arab Regimes (Adelphi paper 324, Oxford University Press, 1998), and editor (with Elizabeth Stanley) of Creating Military Power: the Sources of Military Effectiveness (Stanford University Press, 2007). Her current research explores the determinants of terrorist groups’ strategic choices. She is interested, in particular, in what shapes these organizations’ reactions to the political opportunities available to them, or more broadly, the “Democracy and Terror” debate. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego and a B.A. in International Relations from Mills College, Oakland.