Dr. Michael Brenes

Biography

Michael Brenes is a lecturer and co-director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs. His research interests focus on United States foreign policy, political history, and political economy. Brenes is the author of 'Right: Cold War Defense Spending Remaking American Democracy' published in 2020 by the University of Massachusetts Press. He also co-edited the forthcoming work 'Rethinking U.S. Power: Domestic Histories U.S. Foreign Relations' with Daniel Bessner, set to be published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2024. His collaborative book titled 'Rivalry Peril: Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace Weakens Democracy' is scheduled for release by Yale University Press in January 2025. In addition to these works, his writing has appeared in recognized publications such as The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, Dissent, Boston Review, The Nation, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Currently, he is working on a history of the War on Terror from the 1990s to the present, which will be published by Grove/Atlantic, and is finalizing a co-edited volume with Daniel Bessner on Cold War liberalism, under contract with Cambridge University Press.

Research Interests