Brendan Simms is a professor in the history of international relations and fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He is the author of eight previous books, including Hitler's American Gamble and Europe. He lives in Cambridge, UK.

"Very, very occasionally a history book is written that shines powerful light on the state of contemporary geopolitics, and makes sense of a process that has been hiding in plain sight. Return of the Great Powers, with its profound perceptions about the present in the light of the past, is just such a work."--Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill

"This wide-ranging and provocative analysis of our changing geopolitical environment underscores why Brendan Simms is one of the greatest contemporary scholars of international relations. Simm's narrative is replete with sharp observation and fine detail on key events, as well as clear explanation of critical concepts. It is as accessible to general audiences as it is valuable to fellow historians, and a genuine pleasure to read."--Fiona Hill, author of There is Nothing for You Here

"An exceedingly timely and very compelling book. Professor Brendan Simms provides a masterful chronicle of the evolution over the past two decades from a world of benign globalization, in which barriers to investment, capital flows, and trade were being reduced, to an era of renewed great power rivalries, in which all those barriers are being increased--from a world in which economics drove geopolitics to one in which geopolitics drives economics. The implications of this are enormous, and Simms describes all of it superbly."--General David Petraeus, former director of the CIA

"The Return of the Great Powers is a magisterial survey of the post-Cold War era, the rise and decline of the Liberal International Order, and the return of Great Power competition. This book will be of interest to practitioners, to students of diplomacy and conflict, and to general readers who are looking for informed insight into the current state of the world and where things might go next. Highly recommended--a 'must read.'"--Laurie Bristow, former UK ambassador to Afghanistan and Russia

Publisher: Basic Books

Pub date: 2026-06-02

Length: 480 pages