Risa Brooks's research focuses on issues related to civil-military relations, military effectiveness, and militant & terrorist organizations; she also has a regional interest in the Middle East. Professor Brooks is the author of Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment (Princeton University Press, 2008) and editor (with Elizabeth Stanley) of Creating Military Power: The Sources of Military Effectiveness (Stanford University Press, 2007), as well as many articles in the field of international security. She received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego and her professional experiences include positions as Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London, U.K.), Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Arms Control (CISAC), and a predoctoral affiliation with the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University. Her current research explores themes related to "societal-militant group" relations. Specifically, she is interested in a variety of research questions that explore relationships between militant/terrorist groups and the societies in which they originate, embed, or with which they identify. Her recent work in this area includes studies of the phenomenon of "homegrown" or domestic terrorism in the United States, as well studies of how whether transnational terrorist entities can establish foreign sanctuaries affects their abilities to attack distant (Western) targets. Also related to her interest in societal-militant group relations, Brooks is working on a book project on societal constraints and targeting among militant groups with strong communal ties to their constituencies.