How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything by Rosa Brooks

How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything by Rosa Brooks

The first serious book to examine what happens when the ancient boundary between war and peace is erased.

Once, war was a temporary state of affairs--a violent but brief interlude between times of peace. Today, America's wars are everywhere and forever: our enemies change constantly and rarely wear uniforms, and virtually anything can become a weapon. As war expands, so does the role of the US military. Today, military personnel don't just kill people and break stuff. Instead, they analyze computer code, train Afghan judges, build Ebola isolation wards, eavesdrop on electronic communications, develop soap operas, and patrol for pirates. You name it, the military does it.

Rosa Brooks traces this seismic shift in how America wages war from an unconventional perspective--that of a former top Pentagon official who is the daughter of two anti-war protesters and a human rights activist married to an Army Green Beret. Her experiences lead her to an urgent warning: When the boundaries around war disappear, we risk destroying America's founding values and the laws and institutions we've built--and undermining the international rules and organizations that keep our world from sliding towards chaos. If Russia and China have recently grown bolder in their foreign adventures, it's no accident; US precedents have paved the way for the increasingly unconstrained use of military power by states around the globe. Meanwhile, we continue to pile new tasks onto the military, making it increasingly ill-prepared for the threats America will face in the years to come.

By turns a memoir, a work of journalism, a scholarly exploration into history, anthropology and law, and a rallying cry, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything transforms the familiar into the alien, showing us that the culture we inhabit is reshaping us in ways we may suspect, but don't really understand. It's the kind of book that will leave you moved, astonished, and profoundly disturbed, for the world around us is quietly changing beyond recognition--and time is running out to make things right.

Rosa Brooks is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, a Foreign Policy columnist, and a Georgetown University law professor. She formerly served as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, where she received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 2011. Brooks has also worked for the US Department of State as a senior advisor, as a consultant for Human Rights Watch, and as a monthly editorial columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Her writings and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and dozens of other newspapers and publications, and she has appeared on the Charlie Rose Show, Rachel Maddow Show, Today, Meet the Press, and Erin Burnett OutFront. Brooks shares her home with her husband Joe, kids Anna and Clara, and a Brittany spaniel named Scout in Alexandria, Virginia.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781476777863
ISBN 10	1476777861
Title	How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything
Author	Rosa Brooks
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Year published	2016-08-09
Number of pages	448
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.