@ken-briggs.com
Writer on history, foreign affairs, and technology. Graduate student studying the geopolitics of the energy transition. Consultant and licensed engineer supporting energy startups. https://current-history.com/ buymeacoffee.com/currenthistory/
I'm getting more active on Youtube! My work covers the intersection of history, technology, and foreign affairs. Check out my latest video here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrEU...
New post is up! Europe has agreed to indefinitely freeze Russian state assets. It marks a shift in how power, law, and restraint work when an adversary no longer respects the rules.
Read here: open.substack.com/pub/currenth...
#foreignpolicy #geopolitics #Europe #Russia #Ukraine
New post is up! Japan’s path to Pearl Harbor was shaped by limits on oil and industrial inputs. This pattern still matters today as resource competition becomes central to foreign policy.
#foreignpolicy #geopolitics #history #criticalminerals #energy
current-history.com/p/the-resour...
New post is up! AI is throwing global energy markets off balance. Data centers are driving demand that shifts influence toward countries with minerals, storage, and power capacity.
open.substack.com/pub/currenth...
#Geopolitics #AI #criticalminerals #energy #technology
New post on NATO’s agreement to more than double its defense spending pledge. Its a major foreign policy victory for the Trump administration.
#foreignpolicy #NATO #defense #europe #ukraine
current-history.com/p/a-victory-...
🚨New post on immigration and the Mexican-American War🚨
The war created a border cutting across ethnic and cultural lines. Border security is not a bad thing, but it requires understanding this history.
#history #politics #immigration #borders #america #mexico
current-history.com/p/the-war-th...
Just read this. Great piece, really appreciate the context. Seems like any sort of action on the ground is out of the question.
Its not an ideological problem or a "messaging" problem per se. Its a stylistic problem that signals to voters that they are aloof and don't give AF about their problems
Mainstream Democrats upset about Mamdani need to understand that they could win too if they actually did politics, campaigned, and talked to people instead of repeating focus-grouped, poll-tested talking points ad nauseum
My latest post covers the AI technology deals with the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia. It’s a shift from the Biden approach of working with democratic allies. #foreignpolicy #geopolitics #AI #technology #trade
current-history.com/p/the-ai-chi...
My latest post covers Israel-Iran conflict and what it says about the shifting landscape in the Middle-East. This was written before Trump signaled the US might engage directly (a bad idea, imo).
#foreignpolicy #geopolitics #middleeast #iran #israel
open.substack.com/pub/currenth...
A part of the solution is to show Donald Trump and MAGA the same grace and decorum they show towards their political opponents
A week on from the 81st anniversary of D-Day, Eisenhower’s words still echo: “We must find some way to work to peace… to gain an eternal peace for this world.” As war spreads globally, his message is more urgent than ever.
current-history.com/p/rememberin...
They, and people like him, embody the American spirit far more than these nativist fools who don't understand what their own country stands for.
I think of that family through all of this. How bright eyed the kids were when they saw our house, my childhood home, which their father had bought. A daughter holding her own child. Children of parents who wanted nothing more but to work hard and provide for their families.
My family sold our ranch to one of them. He was a framing contractor, with the business registered in his wife's name (because she was legal). People started spreading rumors that he sold drugs. He told my dad, who he considered a friend, in anger that he "doesn't f**king sell drugs."
And it all works! In general the community improved. They worked hard and, in my experience, left things better than they found them. I could drive down some backroads and find some sheet metal shacks flying Mexican flags. And so what?
20 years later, and the school district is majority hispanic. Teachers need interpreters to communicate with parents. Undocumented migrants use family ties to build businesses, buy land, and build their own homes (literally).
Story time! I grew up in a small, rural community called Rice, Texas. It was poor and left behind by time. Single-wide trailers were one of the main forms of housing. When I was in grade school, my class was predominantly white: there were only a few hispanic kids.
If this happens and the Trump tariffs remain in place, 2026 will be an electoral bloodbath for the GOP.
If GOP funding is cut and Musk threatens to fund primary challengers and Dems, that will cause GOP reps to break ranks.
It’s safe to say (I think) that Trump won because of the intervention of Elon Musk. And the GOP is very aware of where that money came from.
He was playing the long game all along
👀🍿
Peter Thiel is the man behind the curtain, not Elon Musk. That's because Thiel is content with not being the center of attention. Just staying in the shadows while becoming one of the most powerful people in the country.
mashable.com/article/what...
Aaaand the huge rift that everyone knew would happen between two billionaires with ginormous egos finally happened.
The Gulf states were tired of the Palestenian issue, a right-wing Israeli government wanted an excuse for a final solution, and angry Israelis were seeing red. The world was shocked by the attack and did not intervene. And now the fact on the ground is Gaza is destroyed.
My first thought after the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 was the two-state solution was dead. Not because that was what I wanted, but because it set in motion a series of actions that would inevitably lead to what is in the photo.
This might me one of the first #multipolar conflicts, where the interests of multiple states have to be considered, and not just what Russia or the United States wants. A peace that does not consider Ukraine's and Europe's security interests will not last.
I think the answer is a qualified "yes", but the idea that we should just cede a buffer zone in Eastern Europe to Russia does not seem realistic. And, with the increasing capabilities of Ukraine, as well as Poland, I don't know if you even *could* do this.