Brendan Simms

Brendan Peter Simms (born 1967, Dublin) is a Professor of the history of international relations in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Early life Brendan Simms is the son of Anngret and David Simms, a professor of mathematics. He is also a grand-nephew of Brian Goold-Verschoyle, a member of the Communist Party of Ireland, who became a Soviet spy and died in a Soviet gulag in 1942. before completing his doctoral dissertation, Anglo-Prussian relations, 1804–1806: The Napoleonic Threat, at Peterhouse, Cambridge, under the supervision of Tim Blanning in 1993.

In addition to his academic work, Simms also serves as the president of the Henry Jackson Society, which advocates the view that supporting and promoting liberal democracy and liberal interventionism should be an integral part of Western foreign policy, and as President of the Project for Democratic Union, a Munich-based student-organised think tank.

He has advocated that the Eurozone should create a United States of Europe, and also that this should continue the traditions of the Holy Roman Empire, appointing an elected Emperor.

Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy Norman Stone praised Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy as "lively and erudite". He also praised the book for the focus on Germany and Simms's knowledge of it though he qualifies it by saying Simms is stronger on the 18th century than the 20th century due to the volume of material to be covered in the latter. Evans described the book as a "one-sided picture", adding that even Simms has to acknowledge that there were periods of cooperation. On the whole, Malcolm praised the book, though regarding Simms' emphasis on the primacy of foreign policy in European affairs, Malcolm did wonder if there may be counterexamples, such as those where the foreign/domestic distinction is less clear.

British historian Richard Overy described Hitler: Only the World Was Enough as a "thoroughly thought-provoking and stimulating biography which all historians of the Third Reich will have to take seriously," but also criticized the book for downplaying Hitler's imperial ambitions in Eastern Europe and for giving Hitler too much credit for creating outcomes.