Rosa Brooks Rosa Brooks is a law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center , a columnist for Foreign Policy and a Bernard L . Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation . From April 2009 to July 2011 , she served as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy , Michele Flournoy , and in May 2010 she also became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and then Special Coordinator for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy , running a new Pentagon office dedicated to those issues . Brooks wrote a weekly column for the Los Angeles Times from 2005 to 2009 , and is an expert on national security , international law and human rights issues . At the Pentagon her portfolio included both rule of law and human rights issues and global engagement , strategic communication , and she received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service for her work . Education . In 1991 Brooks earned a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University , where she studied history and literature . While an undergraduate at Harvard , Brooks served as president of the Phillips Brooks House Association . At Oxford University ( Christ Church ) she was awarded a Master of Studies degree in social anthropology in 1993 and was a Marshall Scholar . In 1996 she completed her studies at Yale Law School , which conferred upon her the title of Juris Doctor . Legal career . Brooks ' work history has included previous government service as a senior adviser to Assistant Secretary Harold Hongju Koh at the U . S . Department of State , five years as an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law , and a year as Special Counsel to the President at the Open Society Institute , George Soros ' philanthropic foundation . She is the former director of Yale Law School ' s human rights program , and she has taught at both Yale and at Harvard . She has also been a consultant for Human Rights Watch , a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard , a board member of Amnesty International USA , a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations , and a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law . In 2004 she served as a foreign policy advisor to the Kerry - Edwards campaign , and she was a supporter of Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign . She has been a board member of the National Security Network , a member of the World Economic Forum ' s Global Agenda Council on Fragile States , and a member of the steering committee of the White Oak Foreign Policy Leaders Project . She has traveled and worked around the world , including in Iraq , Kosovo , Afghanistan , Indonesia , China , Sierra Leone , Kenya , South Africa , Ghana , Uganda , and Russia . Scholarship . Brooks ' scholarly work has focused on terrorism and rule of law issues , international law , human rights , law of war , and failed state s . Along with Jane Stromseth and David Wippman , Brooks coauthored " Can Might Make Rights ? Building the Rule of Law After Military Interventions " ( 2006 ) , a book which helped shape the United States Army ' s praxis of rule of law . Brooks is also the author of numerous scholarly articles published in law reviews . Political commentary . As a popular and influential columnist in addition to a scholar , her byline has appeared in publications all over the world , ranging from Harper ' s Magazine to the " Washington Post " . From 2005 to 2009 , she wrote a weekly op - ed column for the " Los Angeles Times " . Her writings focused on foreign policy , human rights , and national security issues , and occasionally spanned other topics , including economics and culture and even a humorous take on parenting . ( Brooks has two young children ) . Brooks retired the column upon her appointment to the United States Department of Defense . After leaving the Defense Department , in 2012 Brooks began to write a weekly column for Foreign Policy . Her column , which is called " By Other Means " ( in reference to Klauswitz ' s famous dictum that war is the continuation of politics by other means ) , focuses on the changing nature of war and the changing role of the military . Brooks has been a frequent guest and panelist on MSNBC and CNN , a commentator on Bloggingheads . tv , and a blogger for Slate Magazine ' s XX Factor . She has also appeared several times on Fox ' s The O ' Reilly Factor . In May 2007 she wrote a lighhearted column poking fun at O ' Reilly ' s bluster . O ' Reilly has periodically vilified and attacked her ever since , particular when she was appointed to an influential position at the Pentagon . In her work as a columnist , Brooks has been recognized by liberals for her courage and outspokenness , and her remarks have at times generated backlash from the political right . When she was appointed by Barack Obama to a Pentagon advisory position in April 2009 , conservatives attacked her . Conservative commentators like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity labelled her one of the " Top Ten Most Dangerous Obama Czars , " while the Washington Times wrote an editorial denouncing her appointment . Her Pentagon and military colleagues came to her defense , and the attacks gradually died down as she established a reputation for principled but pragmatic leadership , especially in complex areas such as information operations . Most of the initial conservative attacks focused on her criticism of Bush administration ' s use of so - called torture against suspected terror detainees . She was also critical of the decision to go to war in Iraq , though she has recently taken a view cautiously supporting a slow and phased withdrawal . In 2007 , she wrote that prior to 9 / 11 , " most experts say . . . al - Qaida was little more than an obscure group of extremist thugs , well financed and intermittently lethal but relatively limited in their global and regional political pull . On 9 / 11 , they got lucky . … Today , thanks to U . S . policies , Al - Qaida has become the vast global threat the administration imagined it to be in 2001 . Our ham - handed detention and interrogation tactics and our ill - advised invasion of Iraq have alienated vast swathes of the Islamic world , fueling extremism and anti - Americanism . Today , Al Qaeda is no longer a single organization . Now it ' s a franchise , with new gangs of terrorists around the world proudly seizing the " Al Qaeda " affiliation . " She has also penned a 2006 column in which she wrote that President " Bush . . . authorized practices that even [ former Attorney General ] Gonzales predicted might be seen by ' future prosecutors ' as violations of the War Crimes Act , " and that " it ' s far too late for [ Bush ] to leave a legacy that won ' t be a source of shame to future generations . " She has been occasionally been a critic of some policies of the State of Israel . According to Brooks , " In the United States today , it just isn ' t possible to have a civil debate about Israel , because any serious criticism of its policies is instantly countered with charges of anti - Semitism . " Brooks has also been an advocate for increased taxpayer - funds for public media ( such as National Public Radio and public and community broadcasting ) . In April 2009 she asserted that " Years of foolish policies have left us with a choice : We can bail out journalism , using tax dollars and granting [ broadcast ] licenses in ways that encourage robust and independent reporting and commentary , or we can watch , wringing our hands , as more and more top journalists are laid off . " As a supporter of sending more troops to Afghanistan and an advocate of a robust and well - funded counter - insurgency and counter - terrorism strategy , and as an occasionally sharp critic of prominent Democrats ( including Hillary Clinton ) , Brooks has also sometimes annoyed the political left . In December 2008 , for instance , she warned " Democrats still basking in the reflected glory of Obama ' s win " that " Idiocy and greed aren ' t just for Republicans . For every Larry Craig , there ' s an Eliot Spitzer ; for every Ted Stevens , there ' s a Rod Blagojevich . . . [ I ] t ' s precisely when a party achieves power that its members need to start worrying the most about idiocy and greed . . . [ P ] ower really does corrupt . But illegal corruption isn ' t the only thing Democrats should be on guard against . . . Members of political majorities succumb easily to smugness and complacency , to the conviction that explaining and justifying ideas is no longer necessary , to the temptation to dismiss critics as so many irrelevant cranks . " Groupthink " is mainly a disease of the powerful and complacent , not the fractious opposition . " More recently , she has written several Foreign Policy columns critical of the Obama Administration ' s approach to foreign policy and national security . On economics , Brooks is a progressive / liberal populist . She has skewered the Bush administration ' s alleged mishandling of the economy , argued for addressing the economic crisis with New Deal - style programs , and decried large bailouts for financial firms . Personal life . The daughter of best - selling author Barbara Ehrenreich ( " Nickel and Dimed " ) and psychologist John Ehrenreich , Brooks has two children . As of 2013 she divides her time between Alexandria , Virginia and Colorado Springs , Colorado , the latter location where her husband , Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Mourer , is currently a battalion commander in the U . S . Army ’ s Fourth Infantry Division .