This paper presents a detailed investigation of the physical mechanisms underlying the disruption of a lithium niobate electrooptic modulator by RF pulses. It is shown that short-term modulator disruption is a direct consequence of resistive heating within the metal conductor of the coplanar waveguide electrode, which leads to a thermo-optic optical phase shift in the waveguides of the modulator. Resistive heating is also shown to contribute to permanent modulator damage at higher RF power. These results indicate that short-term RF disruption, and possibly RF damage, can be mitigated through improved thermal management. They also predict that short-term photonic link disruption can be reduced, if not eliminated, by use of a phase modulated photonic link.