For close to a decade\, the U.S. government has been pre occupied with the threat of China\, fearing that the country will “eat our lunch\,” in the words of President Joe Biden. The United States has craft ed its foreign and domestic policy to help constrain China’s military powe r and economic growth.
This talk will argue that great-power compet ition with China is misguided and vastly underestimates the costs and risk s that geopolitical rivalry poses to economic prosperity\, the quality of democracy\, and\, ultimately\, global stability. Great-power competition e xacerbates inequality\, leads to xenophobia and increases the likelihood o f violence around the world. In addition\, it distracts from the priority of addressing such issues as climate change while at the same time undercu tting democratic pluralism and sacrificing liberty in the name of prevaili ng against an enemy “other.” A better\, saner\, more democratically accoun table grand strategy of easing tension and achieving effective diplomacy i s possible.
Michael Brenes is co-director of the Br ady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and lecturer in history at Yale Univ ersity. His research focuses on U.S. foreign policy\, political history an d political economy. He is the author of “For Might and Right: Cold War De fense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy” (2020) and co-editor of “Rethinking U.S. Power: Domestic Histories of U.S. Foreign R elations” (2024). His forthcoming book\, co-authored with Van Jac kson\, is “The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy” (2025). \;
His work has appeare d in The New York Times\, Foreign Affairs\, The New Republic\,&nb sp\;Foreign Policy\, \;Politico\, \;Dissent\, \;Boston Review\ , \;The Nation\, The Chronicle of Higher Education\, and other major p ublications.
He is currently writing a history of the War on Terror \, to be published by Grove Atlantic.