AFRICOM Goes to War on the Sly
“It turns out that, if you want to know what the U.S. military is doing in Africa, it’s advantageous to be connected to a large engineering or construction firm looking for business. Then you’re privy to quite a different type of insider assessment of the future of the U.S. presence there.” .
How to Address Inequality
Professor of Economics at Harvard, Kennedy School, Jeffrey Frankel, argues that commentators should focus on identifying the policies that are best suited to improving income distributions efficiently, and the politicians that support them.
The “Heraldo de Madrid” Returns
When army divisions led by General Franco took Madrid on 28 March 1939, one of their first acts was to send a group of Falangist militiamen to seize the offices of the Heraldo de Madrid by force of arms. 75 years on, a commemorative issue has been printed, underscoring the fragile state of Spain’s news media.
An Unlikely Lunch: When Maupassant met Swinburne
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.
A geopolitical chess game in Crimea
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: taking the counter- out of revolution
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.
Big Brother is cashing in on you
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.
Opposition, AKP and democracy in Turkey
Political life in Turkey is increasingly undemocratic and authoritarian. How can this institutional weakness be overcome?
Vietnam and the Philippines Confront China
The Philippines and Vietnam are natural allies in their common territorial struggles against China. But they should leave Washington out of it.
Trading Away Democracy
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.