Michael Brenes
@mbrenes.bsky.social
Historian at Yale.Non-Resident Fellow @cipolicy.bsky.social. New book: “The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy.” Next: a history of the War on Terror for Grove Atlantic. Avi by @seanandrewmurray.bsky.social.
China is winning the economic war America started. Xi Jinping is using Trump's tariff war and Iran War to secure global energy & economic dominance. Part 1: Dawn of the Electric World Order phenomenalworld.org/analysis/daw... Part 2: Smelling the Roses in Beijing phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
We need a new US foreign policy that promotes peace and solidarity Mu conversation with @ezraklein.bsky.social @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/o...
Opinion | What’s the Left’s Vision for Foreign Policy After Trump?
nytimes.com
It must be emphasized that we need powerful, robust ACADEMIC history IN universities to sustain history OUTSIDE universities. If we can’t employ people in higher ed to train future generations of public historians, we will not have future generations of public historians. 🗃️
American Historical Association@historians.org · 3mo agoThe AHA’s report on academic hiring in history for the 2024–25 cycle is now available. Read more in #AHAPerspectives.
E246 - Cold War Liberal Empire w/ @dbessner.bsky.social and @mbrenes.bsky.social Danny Bessner and Michael Brenes are Derek's guests today as the group gets into topics from Danny and Michael's co-edited volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency. Link in the replies!
Thanks to @thedriftmag.com and @erikmbaker.bsky.social for spreading the word about Cold War Liberalism edited by @mbrenes.bsky.social and @dbessner.bsky.social -- a volume that is sure to provoke much discussion. Available now in paperback from @universitypress.cambridge.org
Madeleine Baker@madeleineebaker.bsky.social · 6mo agoToday in the newsletter: @dbessner.bsky.social and I chat about the book on Cold War liberalism that he co-edited with @mbrenes.bsky.social and to which I contributed, which is out in paperback today newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/the-foundi...
Today in the newsletter: @dbessner.bsky.social and I chat about the book on Cold War liberalism that he co-edited with @mbrenes.bsky.social and to which I contributed, which is out in paperback today newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/the-foundi...
The founding ideology of American empire
Daniel Bessner and Erik Baker on Cold War liberalism and its afterlives
newsletter.thedriftmag.com
Today, a growing number of countries are embracing “a more transactional, nineteenth-century model” of foreign affairs—but a more transactional era will not necessarily be a more peaceful one, writes @mbrenes.bsky.social.
The Transactional Trap
How foreign policy dealmaking can sow violence.
foreignaffairs.com
The postwar “rules-based order” is dead. A transactional world has taken its place, one where values, multilateralism, and liberalism have less influence, a world more suited for the 19th century instead of a multipolar order. My latest for @foreignaffairs.com. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
The Transactional Trap
How foreign policy dealmaking can sow violence.
foreignaffairs.com
Today, a growing number of countries are embracing “a more transactional, nineteenth-century model” of foreign affairs—but a more transactional era will not necessarily be a more peaceful one, writes @mbrenes.bsky.social.
The Transactional Trap
How foreign policy dealmaking can sow violence.
foreignaffairs.com
Michael Brenes and Van Jackson on Why U.S.-China Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy
Michael Brenes and Van Jackson on Why U.S.-China Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy
sinicapodcast.com
Transcript | Michael Brenes and Van Jackson on Why U.S.-China Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy
Transcript | Michael Brenes and Van Jackson on Why U.S.-China Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy
sinicapodcast.com
Today we mourn our beloved colleague Bill Burr, a giant in the field of nuclear history, who passed away last week. Click below to read tributes to Bill that have poured in from around the world. nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/2025-12...
In Memoriam: Dr. William Burr, 1949-2025
Washington, D.C., December 15, 2025 - The National Security Archive mourns the passing of our beloved colleague William Burr, the documentary leader of the nuclear history field, on December 11, 2025....
nsarchive.gwu.edu
I am pleased to share my dual review of Roady & Preston’s recent histories examining FDR’s New Deal & national security. My thanks to the @lawfaremedia.org editorial team for their guidance and to @mbrenes.bsky.social for his early support.
Lawfare@lawfaremedia.org · 8mo ago@seanmcase.bsky.social reviews “The Contest Over National Security" by Peter Roady and “Total Defense" by Andrew Preston, which both trace the faults with our current understanding of national security to the New Deal, but tell quite different tales and focus on different sets of key actors.
While the US & Europe ramp up military spending, millions live in poverty. Today, we launch Transition Security Project, investigating how militarisation makes us poorer and less safe amid climate crisis — and what genuine security could look like. 🧵 transitionsecurity.org
Transition Security Project
transitionsecurity.org
Roundtable Review 17-7 Lauren Benton’s They Called it Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence “Imperial powers permitted conquest if it prevented global war. Peace often meant war, at least on a liminal scale. The modern world...cannot, escape imperial violence.” –Michael Brenes wp.me/p2Insd-7vt
Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-7 on Benton, They Called it Peace
Roundtable Review 17-7 Lauren Benton, They Called it Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence (Princeton University Press, 2024). ISBN: 9780691248479. 6 October 2025 | PDF: https://issforum.org/to/jrt17-7 |...
wp.me
On October 2nd, our @cornellbtpi.bsky.social Fellows met with Professor @mbrenes.bsky.social: Co-Director of the Brady-Johnson Program at Yale University @yalepress.bsky.social and Professor Michael Williams: Associate Professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University @syracuseup.bsky.social.
Awesome review of The Rivalry Peril in The Nation magazine! Thanks, @jeetheer.bsky.social! ( @mbrenes.bsky.social )
By framing China as an existential threat, this conversation explores how policymakers recycle discredited Cold War myths, fueling militarization, inequality, xenophobia, and global instability. With @mbrenes.bsky.social on @amprestigepod.bsky.social
E220 - The Perils of Competition With China w/ Michael Brenes
Podcast Episode · American Prestige · 07/29/2025 · 1h 3m
buff.ly
Read his book on the subject, which he co-authored with @vanjackson.bsky.social, The Rivalry Peril: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
The Rivalry Peril
How the U.S. policy of competition with China is detrimental to democracy, peace, and prosperity—and how a saner approach is possible For close to a dec...
yalebooks.yale.edu
E220 - The Perils of Competition With China w/ @mbrenes.bsky.social Michael Brenes returns to the pod, this time to tell us why a rivalry with China might not exactly be in everyone’s best interest. Link in replies!
This looks like something I absolutely *must* read. Whenever I (in "provocative European mode") ask US experts/ policymakers *why* US is obsessed with competition with China, the answer is often that it is "just logical", "obvious" etc. Looking forward to reading another perspective.
Paul Poast@profpaulpoast.bsky.social · last yr.IR Book of the Week! "The Rivalry Peril" by @mbrenes.bsky.social & @vanjackson.bsky.social. Great Power Competition with China is not a structural necessity. It is a policy choice. And that choice can have negative consequences at home for the USA, even more than abroad.
Many thanks to @profpaulpoast.bsky.social for the shout out! Awesome to have our book on his list. For some reason—I still don’t know why—you can get our book on Amazon for only $7 right now
Paul Poast@profpaulpoast.bsky.social · last yr.IR Book of the Week! "The Rivalry Peril" by @mbrenes.bsky.social & @vanjackson.bsky.social. Great Power Competition with China is not a structural necessity. It is a policy choice. And that choice can have negative consequences at home for the USA, even more than abroad.
I told Tom Edsall in @nytimes.com that Donald Trump is "profiting from the Democrats’ inability to put their house in order… Even if Democrats win the Senate and the House in 2026, Trump is unlikely to let that stop him from continuing his policies.”
Opinion | When It Comes to Undermining America, We Have a Winner
nytimes.com
For the @newrepublic.com, I wrote about the pendulum swinging back to the Democrats (or to the Left), and what history might tell us about our political future.
What If the Political Pendulum Doesn’t Swing Back?
The Cycles of American History foresaw American voter dealignment, and an electronic age that would see voters prioritize personality over party—but it didn’t anticipate Trump.
newrepublic.com
"Schlesinger’s theory worked in the twentieth century because it presumed that all Americans accepted liberalism or liberal tenets—everyone lived in the shadow of liberalism, even if they tried to avoid or repudiate it... newrepublic.com/article/1975...
What If the Political Pendulum Doesn’t Swing Back?
The Cycles of American History foresaw American voter dealignment, and an electronic age that would see voters prioritize personality over party—but it didn’t anticipate Trump.
newrepublic.com
Michael Brenes@mbrenes.bsky.social · last yr.For the @newrepublic.com, I wrote about the pendulum swinging back to the Democrats (or to the Left), and what history might tell us about our political future.
For the @newrepublic.com, I wrote about the pendulum swinging back to the Democrats (or to the Left), and what history might tell us about our political future.
What If the Political Pendulum Doesn’t Swing Back?
The Cycles of American History foresaw American voter dealignment, and an electronic age that would see voters prioritize personality over party—but it didn’t anticipate Trump.
newrepublic.com
We document many such cases like this in The Rivalry Peril
Michael W. Kraus@mwkraus.bsky.social · last yr."Andrea Chu, the Midwest organizing director for Asian American Advancing Justice Chicago, said that Wu’s death shows the “devastating” impact of the China Initiative." www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/04/n...
I wrote about how the Everglades experiment fits into the history of concentration camps in the US and abroad, and how it will connect a domestic network of camps to an international one. We’re watching the imposition of a global concentration camp network.
Opinion | Don’t call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a concentration camp.
This facility’s purpose fits the classic model, and its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.
msnbc.com
Looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues at #SHAFR2025 this week! Join us on Saturday morning for our roundtable on The Global Cold War ✨
