Marc Martorell Junyent

1 week ago | juancole.com | Marc Martorell Junyent |Juan Cole

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 been exchanging attacks for six days, with more than 224 people being killed in Iran and 24 in Israel.

2 weeks ago | juancole.com | Marc Martorell Junyent |Juan Cole

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 Joe Biden’s answer to a journalist in January 2024, when asked about the US strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

1 month ago | juancole.com | Marc Martorell Junyent |Juan Cole

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: An Impossible Exit.” Tarbush, who passed away in 2022, had an extraordinary life.

Mar 16, 2025 | juancole.com | Marc Martorell Junyent |Juan Cole

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 multipliers’ that intensify already-existing conflict patterns.

Feb 27, 2025 | juancole.com | Marc Martorell Junyent |Juan Cole

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 same opinion, with the topic being displaced from first to fourth position in the concerns ranking.