Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is "Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires" (Nation Books, 2018), and he is the author of “Engaging the Muslim World” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and “Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Cole has written widely about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He has commented extensively on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the Iraq War, the politics of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Iranian domestic struggles and foreign affairs.