Goodbye Brandon
By 
Last week our (Dan, myself, Cheryl) little corner of the defense intellectual world lost someone. Steve Saideman says more and better than I could:
This week, we found out that Brandon Valeriano died. It is quite gutting as he had such a terrific spirit, and he was too damned young. Brandon stood out from the crowd at all the conferences as he was literally bigger than most of us, and he was also one of the very few Latinos in the field of IR. But mostly he stood out because he was always surrounded by the large groups of friends and mentees he had amassed over the years, as he had so much love and friendship to give. So his passing is a huge loss to all of us.
I was mostly a conference pal with Brandon. I would see him twice a year–once at the American Political Science Association meeting and once at the International Studies Association meeting. I didn’t see him this year as I missed the most recent ISA, and now I regret not having a last chance to hang
out with him.
My experience with Brandon was very similar to Steve’s, except that I had the opportunity to share a Cybersecurity class with him at Patterson.
Best way to remember him might be to read his book.