The Coming Storm - review

Our review of The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict and Warnings from History, by Odd Arne Westad, first published in March 2026. If you want to understand the current increasingly dangerous international situation in a historical context (or if you have a history essay deadline coming up on the causes of World War I) The Coming Storm is a great starting point.Succinct, stimulating and a little scary - recommended reading. ★★★★☆ In my professional life I come across people ruminating on the state of the world - usually with the objective of trying to make some money out of it. These cogitations often emphasise the parallels of the world now, to the world before World War II: with a hitleresque figure on the loose, willing to throw his weight around1. Ode Arne Westad in The Coming Storm emphasises a different parallel for the present day: the world before World War I, in the early 1900s. The problem right now as he sees it is not as simple as 'bad guy on the loose' but a shift to a…