Juan Cole

Professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan and the creator of Informed Comment Blog explains the different factions fighting ISIL in Mosul. How ISIL is using Civilians as human shields. How many ISIL fighters are there in Mosul? The future of ISIL after it loses territory. What is Turkey’s role in Iraq?  What Iraq’s government […]
The lack of objective in US “jihadi” terror shootings. The instrumentalism of religion by ISIS leaders, and why it’s a mistake to assume they are truly pious. How Donald Trump is playing a role that helps ISIL. Why Bill O’Reilly is wrong about how defeating ISIS works and saying they’re the “same thing” as the […]
Juan Cole of Informed Comment Blog and author of The New Arabs , explains why Turkey’s Justice Development Party won big in yesterdays elections. Why President Erdogan is getting more authoritarian and rigid. Why Erdogan is campaigning against the Kurds and the why of Turkey’s interventions in Syria. Comedian Christopher Hamilton says political correctness is hurting comedy. […]
Professor Juan Cole explains how the climate crisis in Syria helped create the conditions that led to the creation of ISIL. Sea level rises and the next wave of instability in the Middle East. The importance of water in Israel/Palestine. Why Martin O’Malley’s recent comments on climate change and ISIL has provoked so much rage […]
Princeton Professor Julian Zelizer, explains what motivated his new book The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society. Why Congress was also broken during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. How liberals were stifled on civil rights, Medicare and education. Why obstruction was worse in the 1960s. Why the importance […]
Professor Juan Cole author of the new book  The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East, explains why most Muslims do not take ISIS proclaiming a Caliphate seriously, the shifting politics of Kurdish independence, why oppression of Sunnis is fueling the crisis in Iraq, divisions in Sunni politics, will the Al Maliki government […]
Professor and Informed Comment Juan Cole explains India’s election results, the controversial history of India’s next Prime Minister Narendra Modi, why the Congress Party lost, the politics of the Hindu far right, the fusion of religious nationalism and free market policies, what led to Turkey’s mining disaster, the Turkish integration of religious right politics and […]
Mike Konczal explains the Carmen Reinhart Kenneth Rogoff thesis, how influential the Rhienhart Rogoff paper was, why there study was riddled with errors, how an excel spread sheet error destroyed the methodology of the study, the perils of wonkery and why there is no accountability for elites. Professor Juan Cole, explains the corporate distortion of […]
Professor Juan Cole, explained how President Morsi alienated the Egyptian public, is the same coalition that pushed Mubarak from office the one that moved against Morsi? why the labor movement may have been in worse shape under Morsi’s leadership, why regional monarchies support the Egyptian military, why the military engaged in a coup and the […]
Professor Juan Cole, explained the corporate distortion of the Constitution, why NSA whistle blowers are turning the tables on the surveillance state, why data mining is a flawed counter terrorism strategy, the origins of Turkey’s recent protests and the youth driven global backlash against neo-liberalism. On The Better half: who is the NSA whistle blower […]