Michael Brenes

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

The founding ideology of American empire Daniel Bessner and Erik Baker on Cold War liberalism and its afterlives

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 Transactional Trap How foreign policy dealmaking can sow violence.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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....

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...

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.

Transition Security Project

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

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 |...

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

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 )

E220 - The Perils of Competition With China w/ Michael Brenes Podcast Episode · American Prestige · 07/29/2025 · 1h 3m

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

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...

Read his book on the subject, which he co-authored with @vanjackson.bsky.social, The Rivalry Peril: yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

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.

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

Opinion | When It Comes to Undermining America, We Have a Winner

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.”

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.

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.

"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.

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.

We document many such cases like this in The Rivalry Peril

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.

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.

Looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues at #SHAFR2025 this week! Join us on Saturday morning for our roundtable on The Global Cold War ✨

The relaunch of the SHAFR Summer Institute in t-minus 20 minutes!! #SHAFRSummerInstitute #SHAFR2025

Update! Oral histories are back online! Thanks @altusip.bsky.social

Any historians/scholars affected by DOGE? I'm in the middle of writing my book on the history of the War on Terror, which relies upon oral histories published by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). DOGE killed it, sadly. And now the links to those oral histories are dead. Keep the citations, yes?

Today! Looking forward to discussing Pax Economica with @mbrenes.bsky.social and the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy