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Power Problems • November 16, 2021 

# The Erosion of Civil-Military Relations 

Marquette University Associate Professor Risa Brooks discusses civil-military relations in the United States, the role of military leaders and institutions in the making of foreign policy, and what reforms are needed to re-exert civilian primacy over the armed forces. Brooks touches upon concerning episodes, from Obama’s Afghanistan surge to Trump’s explicit politicization of the military, to suggest the proper norms around civil-military relations have eroded in recent years.

**Show Notes**

- [Risa Brooks bio](https://www.marquette.edu/political-science/directory/risa-brooks.php)
- Risa Brooks, James Golby, and Heidi Urben, “[Crisis of Command: America’s Broken Civil-Military Relationship Imperils National Security](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-04-09/national-security-crisis-command),” *Foreign Affairs* 100, no. 3, (May/​June 2021).
- Lionel Beehner, Risa Brooks, and Daniel Marer, *[Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: The Military, Society, Politics, and Modern War](https://www.amazon.com/Reconsidering-American-Civil-Military-Relations-Military/dp/019753550X)* (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2020).
- Risa Brooks, “[Paradoxes of Professionalism: Rethinking Civil-Military Relations in the United States](https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article/44/4/7/12253/Paradoxes-of-Professionalism-Rethinking-Civil),” *International Security* 44, no. 4 (Spring 2020): 7–44.

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This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

##### Risa Brooks 

Associate Professor, Marquette University

![John Glaser](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/John%20Glaser.jpg?itok=-uvxR8zG) 

##### John Glaser 

Host, Power Problems Podcast

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](https://twitter.com/jwcglaser)