Rosa Brooks

Rosa Brooks knows how to explain complex social systems in ways even I can comprehend.
She asks two very interesting questions: What would civil governments have to be like to handle all non-military tasks? And, what would the military have to be like to really do all the things civil government can't?

We’re in a vicious dynamic in which cuts for domestic programs and the State Department lead the military to take on missions that go far beyond killing enemy soldiers, and then compared to the gutted civilian sector the military looks more competent/like a better bet. Plus we face significant legal questions about the meaning of endless war, both in terms of the treatment of individuals—when can they be targeted?—and state-to-state relations—when is intervention on another show more country’s territory justified? If we can go in because the state has failed to protect its own citizens, as in Rwanda or Bosnia, can we also go in because the state failed to protect others’ (as we did in Afghanistan and later with the raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan)? Brooks explores these issues and others, including a lot about civilian-military disconnect, with few solutions but a lot of nuance. show less

A model non-fiction blockbuster: well written, comprehensive, but with a clear argument. As the US government defunds almost everything other than the military, the military is required to take on jobs that it is poorly prepared to do. And as open ended wars on drugs, terror, black people etc etc... proliferate, there seems to be nothing and nobody immune from the military's attention. Well worth reading this back to back with Fred Jameson's essay on the army as offering a possible site of show more political resistance. show less

This book explores complex and sometimes arcane issues in readable, clear prose. Brooks has worked all sides of the policy wonk street, civilian, military and non-government. She points out the strengths of our system as powerfully as she explores its flaws, and in so doing makes it clear that we need to address some fundamental aspects of our current situation that we have been avoiding. She nods at those who feel that terrorism should have been treated as a crime from 9/11 onward, rather show more than as a call to war, but she is very critical of those who think the structures that work to fight a classic army-to-army war on battlefields are adequate to address our current "war". Brooks makes an impassioned plea for us all to face reality and start trying to define the legal and political impacts of the war on terror upon our social, political and governmental structures. This is an important book! show less