Quotes from Rosa Brooks

painful ambiguities.

Why wait passively for the next terrorist attack--or a nuclear missile launched by a rogue state, or a cyberattack emanating from China or from a group of disaffected Estonian teens-- when we could be eliminating the root causes of conflict by fostering economic development and good governance, building relationships, creating networks of agents and allies, collecting data, promoting "new narratives," or striking potential future enemies before they can develop the ability to harm us?

the military has become a substitute welfare state for a large swath of small-town America. In a sense, the military—despite its reputation for political conservatism—has become the last outpost of Big Government paternalism in the United States. In

We tell ourselves that a central project of law and political institutions is the reduction of violence, but this is mostly a fairly tale. Law and politics play a role in structuring violence, but rarely "reduce" it.

If I grew up with the distinct sense that our mother admired the masculine and viewed the feminine as contemptible, my brother tells me he grew up with an equally strong conviction that she viewed masculinity as toxic and dangerous. Both of us are probably right.

the first law enforcement death in the United States—like so many that came later—involved complex elements of race and arose out of conflict between the haves and the have-nots.

On Law & Order and CSI, female cops look svelte and sexy in their uniforms. I look like the Michelin Man, only armed, and less graceful.

Violence is a puzzle. We all say we oppose violence and want to reduce it, but no human society gets by without it.

For better or for worse, police officers spend most of their time serving as medics, mediators, and monitors.