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 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...

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

Transcript | Michael Brenes and Van Jackson on Why U.S.-China Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy

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.

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

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 )

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

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

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.”

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...

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

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

This Wednesday (April 16) at 5 pm EDT: Join the Grand Strategy Program at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs in welcoming @mwpalen.bsky.social for a discussion of his book Pax Economica. He will be in conversation with @mbrenes.bsky.social. Learn more:

I’ll be speaking with the great Alan McPherson tonight about his new book on the Iran-Contra affair and how it shaped American democracy. Come join us if you can!

Tune in to Quincy Institute webinar today at 3 pm (EST)! We are hosting @vanjackson.bsky.social and @mbrenes.bsky.social to discuss their latest book, "The Rivalry Peril." Register now! quincyinst.org/events/book-...

As Trump decides where to take China policy next—from Taiwan to AI, I took a step back and looked at whether the Biden administration’s strategy to outcompete China succeeded, and at what cost. Here's my deep dive: foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/06/b...

I’ll be discussing new book The Rivalry Peril with its authors @vanjackson.bsky.social and @mbrenes.bsky.social. Where did Biden go wrong on US–China relations and what now for great power conflict after the Trump 2 rupture? April 2 Wednesday 3–4pm EDT quincyinst.org/events/book-...

ICE is detaining 48 New Mexico residents and not identifying who they are sourcenm.com/2025/03/17/i...

Frustrated with the AHA or MLA? You're not alone! So am I. I'm frustrated by the deliberate inaction of scholarly orgs on so many issues, and their willful attempts to tamp down any action from the grassroots, so I wrote about it here. It's time to abandon them -- they're not useful anymore.

We made it on Lawfare, one of my favorite podcasts! Thanks to @tylermcbrien.bsky.social for his excellent questions and generous engagement with our book. Listen to @vanjackson.bsky.social and I talk about why great-power competition is bad, and why it will be remade—and endure—under Trump 2.0.

Like I was saying www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

Congrats to Alan McPherson! An important, timely book on the legacy of Iran-Contra. Side note: we need more scholarship on the 1980s.

The great Bill Hartung reviews our new book. Generous, thoughtful, and nuanced. Just like Bill! www.forbes.com/sites/willia...

Had a blast on @majorityreport.bsky.social. You could watch Elbridge Colby’s war-hawk testimony, or you could watch me explain Sino-US rivalry and make sense of why people like him get to posture the way they do on China while America is literally falling apart www.un-diplomatic.com/p/talking-to...

This is the verbatim Viktor Orban playbook, in America

Silicon Valley’s version of accelerationism resembles Karl Marx’s but has “a different end: destroying the existing order to create a technologized, hierarchical one with engineers at the top.” @chaykak.bsky.social on the Muskian techno-coup:

Halfway through this book now -- really important work.

Hey, my university interviewed me about my new book co-authored with Van Jackson! You can also listen to me read an excerpt from "The Rivalry Peril" while recovering from a bad cold. Have a read, and a listen! news.yale.edu/2025/02/24/c...

Fantastic thread covering our event on professional-class liberalism tonight. Read through if you want to feel like you were there!

APLN Senior Research Adviser @vanjackson.bsky.social co-published an article with @mbrenes.bsky.social for @foreignaffairs.com. Click here to read the full analysis ⤵️ www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

The Rivalry Peril, no. 1 in new release in International Diplomacy! @mbrenes.bsky.social www.amazon.com/Rivalry-Peri...

“The more you threaten China, the more its leadership is able to rouse up ethnonationalism to justify its rule.” My new book with @vanjackson.bsky.social reviewed in the South China Morning Post.

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state... This is by far the best, clearest and most realistic analysis of what we're in for that I've seen.

Tomorrow (February 12) at 5 pm EST: The Grand Strategy Program at Yale University welcomes Lauren Benton for a discussion of her new book They Called It Peace. She will be in conversation with @mbrenes.bsky.social. For more details, visit: jackson.yale.edu/jackson-even...