Interests:
Cold War foreign policy, American political history, archives and archival research. He is also a runner, musician, and enjoys travel and good food.
Brief biography:
Michael Brenes is Interim Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and Lecturer in History. His research interests include 20th-century United States foreign policy, political history, and political economy. He is the author of For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy (University of Massachusetts Press, 2020).
In addition to his academic articles and book chapters, his work has been published in The New York Times, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, Dissent, The Baffler, Boston Review, The Nation, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
He is at work on several projects. He is writing a history of the War and Terror from the presidency of Bill Clinton to the present. In addition to his project on the War on Terror, he is co-writing a book with Van Jackson titled The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy, to be published by Yale University Press. He is also co-editing two volumes with Daniel Bessner, one on the relationship between domestic politics and U.S. foreign policy (to be published by Palgrave MacMillan), and the other on the history of Cold War liberalism.
Areas for involvement with Morse students:
Advising and mentoring for upperclassmen
Career advising
Connecting students to internships or other opportunities
Serving as a reader for students preparing CVs and job or fellowship applications
Email Address: