{{short description|American legal academic}} {{use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{use American English|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Rosa Brooks | image = File:Guantanamo Bay- Year 15 (cropped).jpg | caption = Brooks in 2017 | alt = Brooks in 2017 | birth_name = Rosa Ehrenreich | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1970}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | political_party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] | education = [[Harvard University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Christ Church, Oxford]] ([[Master of Studies|MSt]])<br>[[Yale University]] ([[Juris Doctor|JD]]) | father = [[John Ehrenreich]] | mother = [[Barbara Ehrenreich]] | spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Peter Brooks|end=div}}|Joseph Mouer}} | relatives = {{ubl|Ben Ehrenreich (brother)|Sharon McQuaide (stepmother)|Gary Stevenson (stepfather)}} | website = rosa-brooks.com | module = {{Infobox police officer |embed = yes |department = {{Flagicon image|Flag of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.png|size=23px}} [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia]] |allegiance = {{flagicon image|Flag of Washington, D.C..svg|size=23px}} [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]] |known_for = |service = {{flagu|United States|1960|size=23px}} |service_years = 2016–2020 |rank = Reserve Police Officer }} }}
'''Rosa Brooks''' ({{nee}} '''Ehrenreich'''; born 1970)<ref name="scottgsherman-barbaraehrenreich"/> is an American law professor, journalist, author and commentator on foreign policy, U.S. politics and criminal justice. She is the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law and Policy at [[Georgetown University Law Center]]. Brooks is also an adjunct scholar at [[United States Military Academy|West Point]]'s [[United States Military Academy#Department of Military Instruction|Modern War Institute]] and a senior fellow at the [[New America Foundation]]. From April 2009 to July 2011, Brooks was a counselor to [[Under Secretary of Defense for Policy]] [[Michèle Flournoy]].
Brooks is a commentator on politics and foreign policy. She served as a columnist and contributing editor for ''[[Foreign Policy]]'' and as a weekly columnist for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]].'' Brooks authored the 2016 book ''[[How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon|How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything]]''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-Everything-Became-War-and-the-Military-Became-Everything/Rosa-Brooks/9781476777870|title=How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything|date=2017-07-25|isbn=978-1-4767-7787-0|language=en|last1=Brooks|first1=Rosa|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> and the 2021 book ''Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City,'' which is based on her five years as a reserve police officer in Washington, D.C.
At Georgetown Law, Brooks founded the Center for Innovations in Community Safety, formerly the Innovative Policing Program, which in 2017 launched the Police for Tomorrow Fellowship Program with Washington, D.C.'s [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|Metropolitan Police Department]]. She founded the [https://www.lcwins.org/ Leadership Council for Women in National Security], the [[Transition Integrity Project]] and the [https://www.brennancenter.org/democracy-futures-project Democracy Futures Project]. In 2021,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-25 |title=Washington's Most Influential People |url=https://washingtonian.com/2024/05/02/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2024/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331234049/https://www.washingtonian.com/2021/02/25/washingtons-most-influential-people/ |archive-date=2022-03-31 |website=[[Washingtonian (magazine)|Washingtonian]]}}</ref> 2022<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-03 |title=Washington DC's 500 Most Influential People |url=https://washingtonian.com/2022/05/03/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220714223556/https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/05/03/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people/#Foreign-affairs |archive-date=2022-07-14 |website=[[Washingtonian (magazine)|Washingtonian]]}}</ref> and 2023,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-04-27 |title=Washington DC's 500 Most Influential People of 2023 |url=https://washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240705173722/https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/ |archive-date=2024-07-05 |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=[[Washingtonian (magazine)|Washingtonian]] |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Washingtonian (magazine)|''Washingtonian'']] magazine listed Brooks as one of Washington's "most influential people."
== Early life and education == Rosa Brooks is the daughter of author [[Barbara Ehrenreich]] (née Alexander) and psychologist [[John Ehrenreich]]. Her parents separated when she was young and she also grew up with her stepparents, Gary Stevenson and Sharon McQuaide. Her mother is Scottish, Irish and English descent, while her father's ancestors were Jewish immigrants from Central Europe, but both her parents were from non-religious families.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1992-04-05 |title=HERS; Cultural Baggage (Published 1992) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/05/magazine/hers-cultural-baggage.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203235158/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/05/magazine/hers-cultural-baggage.html |archive-date=2024-12-03 |access-date=2025-10-02 |language=en}}</ref> She was named after Rosa Parks and Rosa Luxemburg.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Professor Who Became a Cop |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/162245/rosa-brooks-professor-police-officer |access-date=2025-10-02 |work=The New Republic |issn=0028-6583}}</ref> Her brother is journalist and author [[Ben Ehrenreich]]. Brooks was born in a public clinic in New York City but when she was a child her parents moved to Oyster Bay, New York. She attended elementary school in Syosset and briefly attended Syosset High School in [[Syosset, New York]], but left early after two years to attend Harvard. In 1991, she earned a [[Bachelor of Arts]] (history and literature) from [[Harvard University]].<ref name="georgetown_faculty">{{cite web|url=http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/facinfo/tab_faculty.cfm?Status=Faculty&ID=2133|title=Profile Rosa Brooks|website=law.georgetown.edu}}</ref><ref name="squarespace-bio">{{cite web |last1=Brooks |first1=Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks |title=About Rosa Brooks |url=http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/rosa-brooks-bio/ |website=Rosa Brooks |access-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221164558/http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/rosa-brooks-bio/ |archive-date=21 February 2007 |date=2006 |quote=Rosa Brooks is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. (She is currently on leave from Georgetown to serve as Special Counsel at the Open Society Institute in New York). }}</ref>
While an undergraduate, Brooks lived in Lowell House and served as president of the [https://www.pbha.org/ Phillips Brooks House Association], Harvard's undergraduate public service organization. She graduated [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and was a [[Marshall Scholar]] at [[Christ Church, Oxford]].<ref name="georgetown_faculty" /> In 1993, Brooks received a [[Master of Studies]] from [[Oxford University]] in [[Social anthropology]].<ref name="squarespace-bio"/> In 1996, she received a J.D. from [[Yale Law School]].<ref name="georgetown_faculty" /><ref name="squarespace-bio"/>
== Career == Brooks was a lecturer at [[Yale Law School]],<ref name="squarespace-bio"/> where she was the director of Yale Law School's human rights program. She was a fellow at the [[Carr Center for Human Rights Policy]] at Harvard's [[Harvard Kennedy School|Kennedy School of Government]], a board member of [[Amnesty International USA]] and a member of the Executive Council of the [[American Society of International Law]].<ref name="squarespace-bio"/> Brooks served on the board of the [[Open Society Foundations|Open Society Foundation]]'s US Programs Fund and as a senior advisor at the [[United States Department of State|US Department of State]]'s [[Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor|Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor]].<ref name="squarespace-bio"/> Brooks was also a consultant for the [[Open Society Foundations|Open Society Institute]] and for [[Human Rights Watch]].<ref name="squarespace-bio"/>
Brooks was a member of the Policy Committee of the National Security Network.<ref name="squarespace-bio"/> From 2001 to 2006, she was an associate professor at the [[University of Virginia School of Law]].<ref name="squarespace-bio"/> Brooks has been a columnist for the [[Los Angeles Times]] (June 2005 to April 9, 2009)<ref name="latimes-columnist-rbrooks">{{cite web |last1=Brooks |first1=Rosa |title=Rosa Brooks |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-columnist-rbrooks,1,2727719.columnist |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=April 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622013308/http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-columnist-rbrooks,1,2727719.columnist |archive-date=June 22, 2011 |date=June 22, 2011 |url-status=dead |quote=This will be my last column for the L.A. Times. After four years, I'll soon be starting a stint at the Pentagon as an advisor to the undersecretary of Defense for policy. (Rosa Brooks is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Brooks taught at the University of Virginia and at Yale. She has also served as a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of State, a consultant for Human Rights Watch, a board member of Amnesty International USA, a fellow of the Kennedy School of Government's Carr Center, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. Her government and NGO work has involved extensive travel and field research in countries ranging from Iraq and Kosovo to Indonesia and Sierra Leone.)}}</ref><ref name="squarespace-la-times-columns">{{cite web |last1=Brooks |first1=Rosa |title=Los Angeles Times Columns |url=http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/la-times-columns/ |website=Rosa Brooks |access-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516032234/http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/la-times-columns/ |archive-date=16 May 2007}}</ref> and, since 2007, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.<ref name="squarespace-bio"/> In 2019 she was named the Inaugural Scott K. Ginsberg Professor of Law and Policy.[https://www.law.georgetown.edu/news/professor-rosa-brooks-installed-as-the-inaugural-scott-k-ginsburg-professor/]
From April 2009 to July 2011, she was on public service leave from Georgetown to serve as counselor to [[Under Secretary of Defense for Policy]], [[Michele Flournoy]]. She received the [[Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service]] for her work at the Defense Department.<ref name="law.georgetown.edu/faculty/rosa-brooks"/>
Brooks currently serves on the board of the [[Harper's Magazine]] Foundation, the Advisory Committee of National Security Action, the Steering Committee of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security and the board of the [[American Bar Association]]'s Rule of Law Initiative.<ref name="law.georgetown.edu/faculty/rosa-brooks">{{cite web |title=Rosa Brooks |url=https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/rosa-brooks/ |website=Georgetown Law |access-date=April 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127232740/https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/rosa-brooks/ |archive-date=2021-01-27 |quote=Associate Dean for Centers and Institutes; The Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law and Policy, Rosa Brooks teaches courses on international law, national security, constitutional law and criminal justice. She joined the Law Center faculty in 2007, after serving as an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. From 2016 to 2018, Brooks served at the Law Center's Associate Dean for Graduate Programs. Brooks is also an Adjunct Senior Scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute and a Senior Fellow at New America.}}</ref>
From 2016 to 2020, she was also a reserve police officer with the [[Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia]], and she received the Chief of Police Special Award in 2019.<ref name="penguinrandomhouse-565187">{{Cite web |title=Tangled Up in Blue - Penguin Random House |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565187/tangled-up-in-blue-by-rosa-brooks/ |access-date=2021-02-18}}</ref> She has also been active in Democratic presidential campaigns. She served most recently as a volunteer advisor on defense policy to the Biden campaign, and she is frequently consulted as an expert advisor on issues of national security, criminal justice, democracy and rule of law.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} In July 2024, after Biden's weak debate performance, she promoted a [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/07/democratic-donors-staff-memo-biden-drop-out-blitz-primary.html "blitz primary"] to identify an alternative candidate to Joe Biden.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Picciotto |first=Rebecca |date=2024-07-07 |title=Democratic power players are circulating a proposal for Biden to exit, launch 'blitz primary' |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/07/democratic-donors-staff-memo-biden-drop-out-blitz-primary.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709064849/https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/07/democratic-donors-staff-memo-biden-drop-out-blitz-primary.html |archive-date=2024-07-09 |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=[[CNBC]] |language=en}}</ref>
=== Writings === Brooks' scholarly work has focused mostly on national security, [[terrorism]] and [[rule of law]] issues, [[international law]], [[human rights]], [[Laws of war|law of war]], [[failed state]]s, and, more recently, criminal justice and policing. Along with Jane Stromseth and David Wippman, Brooks coauthored ''Can Might Make Rights? Building the Rule of Law After Military Interventions'' (2006).<ref name="cambridge-0521678013">{{Cite web |title=Can Might Make Rights? |url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521678013 |access-date=2016-08-05 |website=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Brooks is also the author of numerous scholarly articles published in law reviews.<ref name="Brooks-2006">{{cite web |last1=Brooks |first1=Rosa Ehrenreich |title=We the People's Executive |url=http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/we-the-peoples-executive/ |website=Rosa Brooks |access-date=April 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221164629/http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/we-the-peoples-executive/ |archive-date=February 21, 2007 |date=2006 |quote=115 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 88}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/the-politics-of-the-geneva-con/ |title=Rosa Brooks - The Politics of the Geneva Conventions|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220214342/http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/the-politics-of-the-geneva-con/|archive-date=February 20, 2007}}</ref><ref name="rosabrooks.squarespace.com">{{cite web|url=http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/war-everywhere/ |title=Rosa Brooks - War Everywhere|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221164458/http://rosabrooks.squarespace.com/war-everywhere/|archive-date=February 21, 2007}}</ref>
Brooks authored the 2016 book ''How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything''.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Evans|first=Harold|date=2016-08-05|title=Rosa Brooks Examines War's Expanding Boundaries|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/books/review/rosa-brooks-how-everything-became-war-and-the-military-became-everything.html|access-date=2020-12-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> It was a ''New York Times'' Notable Book of the Year and was selected by ''[[Military Times]]'' as one of the ten best books of the year. The book was also shortlisted for the [[Lionel Gelber Prize]] and the [[Arthur Ross Book Award]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rosa Brooks {{!}} Penguin Random House|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2157940/rosa-brooks|access-date=2021-05-13|website=PenguinRandomhouse.com|language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2021, she published ''Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City,'' which is about her experience as a reserve police officer in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite web|title=An Arresting 'Tangled Up in Blue' {{!}} Inside Higher Ed|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/arresting-%E2%80%98tangled-blue%E2%80%99|access-date=2021-06-30|website=www.insidehighered.com|language=en}}</ref> ''Tangled Up in Blue'' was selected by the Washington Post as one of the [https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/11/18/best-nonfiction-2021/ best non-fiction books of 2021].
== Political commentary == In addition to serving as a weekly opinion columnist for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' and ''[[Foreign Policy]]'', Brooks was a founder of ''Foreign Policy'''s weekly podcast, ''The E.R.,''<ref>{{cite web |title=FP's The Editor's Roundtable (The E.R.) |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/foreign-policy-podcast/id1034003458?mt=2 |access-date=18 April 2016 |publisher=Foreign Policy}}</ref> and is now a member of the [https://thedsrnetwork.com/ Deep State Radio] podcast team. She has been a frequent guest and panelist on [[MSNBC]], [[Fox News|Fox]], [[CNN]] and [[NPR]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Rosa Brooks |url=http://bloggingheads.tv/?s=Rosa+brooks&ModPagespeed=noscript |accessdate=18 April 2016 |publisher=Bloggingheads.tv}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=News Hounds: Liberal Lady Lawyer Runs Rings Around Bill O'Reilly on Subject of GITMO Detainees |url=http://www.newshounds.us/2005/05/25/liberal_lady_lawyer_runs_rings_around_bill_oreilly_on_subject_of_gitmo_detainees.php |website=newshounds.us}}</ref> Brooks has contributed numerous op-eds and book reviews to the ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]], [[The New York Times]],'' ''[[The Atlantic]]'', ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' and numerous other publications.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brooks |first=Rosa |date=24 April 2020 |title=Police officers nationwide need to consider going hands-off during this crisis |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/24/this-pandemic-standard-police-practices-risk-spreading-infection/}}</ref>
== Personal life == Brooks has two children.<ref name="scottgsherman-barbaraehrenreich">{{cite web |last1=Sherman |first1=Scott |title=Class Warrior |url=https://www.scottgsherman.com/profiles/barbaraehrenreich.php |access-date=17 April 2021 |website=Scott Sherman |quote=Ehrenreich moved to Charlottesville in 2001 to be near her thirty-two-year-old daughter, Rosa, a law professor at the University of Virginia, and her granddaughter, Anna, now two. (She also has a son, Ben, who writes for L.A. Weekly.) When Ehrenreich is in town, she will often, in the late afternoon, get in her Honda Civic — which bears a "Proud to Be An American Against War" bumper sticker — and drive to Rosa's farmhouse on the outskirts of Charlottesville, a place Rosa shares with her husband, the Yale literary critic Peter Brooks, who is currently teaching at UVA.}}</ref> Brooks was previously married to the Yale literary critic [[Peter Brooks (writer)|Peter Brooks]],<ref name="scottgsherman-barbaraehrenreich" /><ref name="Encyclopedia.com-Peter-Preston-Brooks">{{cite web |title=Brooks, Peter 1938– |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/brooks-peter-1938 |access-date=17 April 2021 |website=Encyclopedia.com |quote=Peter Preston Brooks}}</ref> and subsequently married LTC Joseph Mouer,<ref>{{cite news |author=Helaine Olen |date=10 August 2012 |title=The Smaller, Cheaper, Just-for-Us Wedding |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/fashion/the-reinvented-wedding-smaller-and-cheaper.html |accessdate=13 April 2016}}</ref> a now-retired Army Special Forces officer.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=KkPS-fSuhr0]
== Works == *''Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the Nation's Capital,'' Penguin, 2021, {{ISBN|9780525557852}}<ref name="penguinrandomhouse-565187" /> *''How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything,'' Simon and Schuster, 2016, {{ISBN|9781476777863}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Senior |first=Jennifer |date=2016-08-01 |title=Review: 'How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything' |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/books/review-how-everything-became-war-and-the-military-became-everything.html |access-date=2016-08-05 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=At its finest, "How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything" is a dynamic work of reportage, punctuated by savory details like this one. But Ms. Brooks has a larger ambition: She wants to explore exactly what happens to a society when the customary distinctions between war and peace melt away.}}</ref> * Rosa Brooks, Jane Stromseth, David Wippman, ''Can Might Make Rights? Building the Rule of Law After Military Interventions'', [[Cambridge University Press]], 2006, {{ISBN|0521678013}}<ref name="cambridge-0521678013" /> * ''A Garden of Paper Flowers: An American at Oxford'', Picador, 1994, {{ISBN|9780330327947}} (under the name Rosa Ehrenreich; later articles are credited to Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Official website}} * [https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/rosa-brooks/ Profile] at [[Georgetown University Law Center]] * {{Google Scholar id}} *{{C-SPAN|1027665}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Rosa}} [[Category:1970 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]] [[Category:American foreign policy writers]] [[Category:American international relations scholars]] [[Category:21st-century American legal scholars]] [[Category:American women legal scholars]] [[Category:American women political scientists]] [[Category:21st-century American lawyers]] [[Category:21st-century American women civil servants]] [[Category:21st-century American women lawyers]] [[Category:21st-century American social scientists]] [[Category:Clinton administration personnel]] [[Category:Harvard College alumni]] [[Category:International law scholars]] [[Category:Lawyers from New York City]] [[Category:Los Angeles Times people]] [[Category:Marshall Scholars]] [[Category:Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia officers]] [[Category:Obama administration personnel]] [[Category:People from Syosset, New York]] [[Category:Syosset High School alumni]] [[Category:United States Department of Defense officials]] [[Category:Journalists from New York City]] [[Category:Yale Law School alumni]] [[Category:Georgetown University Law Center faculty]] [[Category:American people of Jewish descent]] [[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]] [[Category:American people of Irish descent]] [[Category:American people of Polish descent]] [[Category:American people of English descent]]