Quentin Bruneau

🚨 The political economy of finance summer school is back, 3rd year running! Better still: We're bringing it to London via @lse-ei.bsky.social.

𝐓𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜: Finance & democracy
𝙳̲̲𝚊̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚎̲: 4-5 June 2026
𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦: March 1. Link below.

We've got brilliant instructors as usual. Please spread the word!

🚨New piece in Politics & Society! w/ @maxkiefel.bsky.social @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social
Internationalizing Industrial Policy: How China and the United States Use State Capacity to Secure Critical Minerals for Electric Vehicles 🇨🇳 🇺🇸
doi.org/10.1177/0032...

@janeijking.com

How not to talk about capitalism The more it penetrates our daily lives, the less we seem to understand the “system that runs the world”

For the New Statesman, I wrote about this thing we call capitalism. By way of Borges and Braudel, I review the mappings and musings in Sven Beckert’s and Branko Milanovic’s brilliant new books.

www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

👇 #HistIR

I wrote a short piece on capitalism and the states-system for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bet...

What transforms our societies more?
predatory inter-state orgies of violence or capitalism red in tooth and claw?
Holders of the means of production or holders of the means of destruction ?

Fantastic essay on a critical debate esp in our current age :
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bet...

For their excellent comments, thanks to Rona Beresh, Mark Burwick, Claire Vergerio, @jcostalopez.bsky.social , @simontorracinta.bsky.social , @arthurduhe.bsky.social , Rose Owen, Jim Miller, Mark Frazier, Maya Adereth.

One caveat: I did not get to write the introduction or see the edits to my piece before publication, so there may be minor stylistic discrepancies, but hopefully nothing that alters the arguments too much.

One of the points I make is that there is currently no good case for subsuming the states-system to capitalism, and that in one sense, capitalism may be derivative of a specific pattern of international political ordering (not the states-system).

While some have long sought to trace every major global transformation back to the internal dynamics of capitalism, others put more emphasis on the competitive states-system we inhabit. Here, I revisit the Q of how we should think about the relationship between capitalism and the states-system

This was in part prompted by a discussion between @70sbachchan.bsky.social and @iliasalami.bsky.social on @thedigradio.bsky.social , but also by a larger set of debates that were invoking very different causes to explain an array of contemporary developments in the global economy and beyond.

I wrote a short piece on capitalism and the states-system for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bet...

New book, coming soon!

Duncan Bell & Douglas Mao, Utopia (Oxford UP, 2026)

It's a short interdisciplinary volume in the recently launched OUP Literature and Politics series.

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Thanks Rafi!

amen.

a black and white cartoon of a man holding a sign that says ' sickos ' . ALT: a black and white cartoon of a man holding a sign that says ' sickos ' .

Now is the moment for a multilateral defence bank on.ft.com/44pLMAa

China has Made in China 2025, an elaborate industrial policy, designed by an army of competitive bureaucrats and a financial system subordinated to them.

The US at this point has a guy with instinct, now afraid of the bond market

Graphic announcing States and the Masters of Capital: Sovereign Lending, Old and New by Quentin Bruneau as the winner of the 2025 Francesco Guicciardini Prize for Best Book in Historical International Relations. The left side has a blue background with bold orange and black text stating "Winner! Quentin Bruneau States and the Masters." Below, in gray text, is the award name. The book cover on the right shows a historical painting with the title in white text. At the bottom, a banner offers 20% off with code CUP20SM at cup.columbia.edu.

We are pleased to announce that @qbruneau.bsky.social 's STATES AND THE MASTERS OF CAPITAL is the Winner of the 2025 Francesco Guicciardini Prize for Best Book in Historical International Relations from the @hist-isanet.bsky.social‬ section of the International Studies Association. buff.ly/A3KP6vj

Ethnos of the Earth Cambridge Core - Global History - Ethnos of the Earth

IR Book of the Week!

"Ethnos of the Earth" by Jaakko Heiskanen. As empires collapsed and nation-states emerged during the 20th Century, "ethnicity" gained traction as a means to talk of the "stateless" without recognizing self-determination

Thanks for the kind words Jan!

Thank you Chase!

Merci beaucoup Frédéric! Très heureux de t’avoir comme lecteur!

Thank you Frieder!

Thanks Martin!

Thank you Matthew —looking forward to meeting you!

Thanks so much Caelyn!

Thanks so much Ben!