Welcome to By Other Means

This blog will be the conversational partner to the By Other Means column, which will appear on Thursdays. Both the column and the blog will focus on exploring the changing strategic environment, the changing nature of war, and the changing role of the U.S. military, with occasional forays into other foregn policy issues.

My background: I’m currently a law professor at Georgetown and a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where I’m working on a book about the military’s evolving role. My past experience includes a recent stint as counselor to the under secretary of defense for policy (2009-2011) and four years as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, as well as shorter stints with the State Department and a variety of NGOs, including Human Rights Watch. I’m married to a career army officer, which gives me something of a vested interest in my subject.

Future columns will address the evolving security environment, the increasing militarization of both foreign and domestic policy, civilian-military cultural gaps, and the consequences for law, policy and strategy. This blog will contain briefer thoughts, follow-ups to columns, responses to readers and the occasional guest post. Please email me here with comments, questions and suggestions: rosa.brooks[at]gmail.com.