Book Review: Vali Nasr, “Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History”, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025). Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Islamic Republic of Iran faces its greatest moment of crisis since the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. After Israel struck nuclear, military, and civilian sites in Iran on June 13, the two countries have […]
A World of Enemies: America’s Wars at Home and Abroad
Book Review – Osamah F. Khalil, A World of Enemies: America’s Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden. Cambridge (MA) and London: Harvard University Press, 2024. Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – “When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis, no. Are they going to continue, yes.” This was US President […]
My Palestine: An Impossible Exile
Review of Mohammad Tarbush, My Palestine: An Impossible Exile (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2024) Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– –– It is probably impossible for a single autobiography to capture the lengths of modern Palestinian history. But if one book can get close to this, it is Mohammad Tarbush’s “My Palestine: […]
The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence
Review of Peter Schwartzstein, The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence (London: Footnote Press, 2024). Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– Although climate change does not directly cause conflict, it makes violence more likely to occur and to be more intense. The effects of climate change act as ‘threat […]
Germany: A Not-So-Green Departing Government, A Future Coalition even Less Ambitious on Climate?
Zwickau/Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– When Germans voted in a national election in September 2021, 33% of the population considered that the environment and climate were among the two main problems Germany was facing. In a poll from January 2025, one month before last weekend’s election, only 13% of the population held the […]
14 Years after the Arab Spring Youth Revolution in Egypt, the Problems that provoked it are Even Worse
Rusha Latif, author of Tahrir’s Youth: “The problems and grievances that drove the 2011 Egyptian revolution remain and are much worse today” Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) — Born in the United States to Egyptian parents, Rusha Latif is an independent researcher based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also the […]
The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf
Review of Allen James Fromherz, The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024). Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– Historically known as the Persian Gulf, the body of water stretching from Iraq on the northwest to […]
How to Lose a War: The Story of America’s Intervention in Afghanistan
Review of Amin Saikal, “How to Lose a War: The Story of America’s Intervention in Afghanistan” (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024). Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– More than three years have passed since US troops left Afghanistan in August 2021, putting an end to an occupation that lasted two […]
The Yemen Model and Failed US Middle East Policy
Review of Alexandra Stark, “The Yemen Model: Why U.S. Policy Has Failed in the Middle East” (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024). Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) –– Yemen goes through a civil war that does not end, frequent cholera outbreaks, and acute malnutrition among children. These days, however, the southern […]
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