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Welcome to The Global Dispatches,
This month Julian Barnes on a somewhat surreal encounter between two literary heavyweights, Swinburne and de Maupassant. We take an in-depth look at the Crimean crisis, from three different points of view with Anatol Lieven, Vlad Chorazy and Taras Kuzio. Ivan Briscoe, a fellow of the Conflict Research Unit on the disintegrating suggestion in Venezuela; A.Kadir Yildirim, assistant professor of political science at Furman University unravels a complicated situation in Turkey; Caroline Baylon, Research Associate, Science, Technology and Cyber Security, at the Chatham House International Security Department with an unnerving article on the 90 billion dollar industry of Internet user data sales....and much more |
 | A young de Maupassant was invited to lunch at the holiday cottage of Swinburne. The encounter included: a flayed human hand, pornography, monkey meat, and inordinate amounts of alcohol. |
 | The “onboarding” of Crimea exacerbates Russia’s political and economic vulnerability. However, costs will be high for all parties, as they will have to adapt to new geopolitical realities that will weigh on regional and international relations throughout the entire 21st century. |
 | Venezuela is politically polarised and so is much of the coverage of it. But just as the violence is now kaleidoscopic the international response must become more complex. |
 | The internet’s cookie monsters are harvesting your secrets. A £90 billion industry is going unregulated and unchecked, gathering seemingly unrelated information for trade and profit. Data brokers buy information from companies that are selling data on the internet users who visit their websites. |
 | Political life in Turkey is increasingly undemocratic and authoritarian. How can this institutional weakness be overcome? |
 | The Philippines and Vietnam are natural allies in their common territorial struggles against China. But they should leave Washington out of it. |
 | The proposed “free trade” agreement between the USA and the European Union undermines the democratic process. A provision called ISDS would allow foreign corporations to sue governments before special international tribunals over domestic laws that interfere with corporate profits. |
 | Journalistic speculation about Crimea becoming independent is rife. However, the real dangers lie elsewhere… |
 | In Yemen a transition towards a new political dispensation is threatened by Islamist violence, drone strikes, southern secessionism and tribal militancy. But concentrating on the first alone and failing to understand the wider context will not secure it. |
 | We’re now witnessing the consequences of how grossly both Russia and the West have overplayed their hands in Ukraine. |
 | Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gives Washington a wakeup call about potential conflict in East Asia, now that immobility is no longer a viable option for dealing with China. Sooner or later, settlements must be found, or territorial disputes will turn into open conflict. |
 | Anti-government rallies in Thailand, Ukraine, and Venezuela have captured the attention of millions but large pro-democracy demonstrations in Burkina Faso last month escaped the media’s radar. |
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