Marc Lynch

2 weeks ago | portside.org | Marc Lynch

Why Did Israel Attack Iran Now? Published June 14, 2025 What is it really trying to achieve... and can it succeed? Last night, Israel launched a major military strike against Iran, killing a number of its senior military commanders and taking shots at key nuclear sites. The strike came only days before the sixth round of the US-Iran nuclear talks in Oman, and days before the convening of a major UN conference on a Palestinian state spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia.

2 weeks ago | abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io | Marc Lynch

What is it really trying to achieve... and can it succeed? Last night, Israel launched a major military strike against Iran, killing a number of its senior military commanders and taking shots at key nuclear sites. The strike came only days before the sixth round of the US-Iran nuclear talks in Oman, and days before the convening of a major UN conference on a Palestinian state spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia.

Nov 6, 2024 | abuaardvark.substack.com | Marc Lynch

This is a sad day for America and the world. Like most of us, I’m still processing Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris last night. It’s not just that he won — it’s the wholesale shift to the right seen almost everywhere after the most extreme right wing campaign in American history. With the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court behind him, and his near certain escape from all of the lawsuits against him, there is a near complete absence of any checks on his power.

Jul 8, 2024 | abuaardvark.substack.com | Marc Lynch

Keith Whittington, You Can’t Teach That!: The Battle Over University Classrooms (Wiley 2024). “American academic freedom is in peril,” warned Kate Starbird and Ryan Calo recently in the journal Science. They speak from hard-earned personal experience based on the backlash to their pathbreaking work studying online disinformation: “Academics researching online misinformation in the US are learning a hard lesson: Academic freedom cannot be taken for granted.

Jun 20, 2024 | brookings.edu | Marc Lynch |Shibley Telhami

Even before a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip could be attained, the Biden administration has avowed the need to return to the eventual goal of a two-state solution as the foundation of a durable Israeli-Palestinian settlement. But a new survey of Middle East scholars who study the issue suggests that finding such a solution out of the horrific devastation of Gaza is highly unlikely.