Putin’s Offer Is a Trojan Horse

View this email in your browser Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Jason Miks. September 7, 2017 Putin's Offer Is a Trojan Horse: Bloomberg Don't be fooled by Vladimir Putin's recent call for U.N. peacekeepers to be brought into the conflict in Ukraine. The overture is a Trojan horse, Bloomberg editorializes.   "While the Ukrainian government and its Western supporters have also called for the U.N. to monitor the civil war in Eastern Ukraine, they have rightly insisted that the peacekeepers monitor the border with Russia, where arms and advisers pour in to aid the separatist rebels aiming to split the nation further apart. Yet Putin wants the international force to patrol only the unofficial dividing line between the breakaway regions and the Ukrainian military. His goal, clearly, is to have the U.N. forces establish a de facto independent state for the Russia-aligned forces," Bloomberg argues.   "This Ukraine strategy -- including the annexation of Crimea through an illegal referendum in 2014 -- is of a piece with Putin's long-term goal of creating a series of 'frozen conflicts' around Russia's borders to serve as a buffer zone between his nation and what he sees as a hostile West."   How Al Qaeda Is Rising in Syria Even as the West focuses on the fight against ISIS, an al Qaeda-linked movement is growing in strength. Expect the group to get even stronger as Sunni Arab jihadis determined to keep battling Syrian government forces find they have no choice but to embrace it, writes Patrick Cockburn in The Independent.   "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which used to be called Jabhat al-Nusra, has long been the most powerful rebel group in western Syria," Cockburn writes. "HTS is estimated to have 30,000 experienced fighters whose numbers will grow as it integrates brigades from other defeated rebel groups and recruits young men from the camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have sought refuge in Idlib from President Bashar al-Assad's forces."   "ISIS declared war against the whole world in 2014 and inevitably paid the price of creating a multitude of enemies who are now crushing it in Syria and Iraq. Many of the members of this de facto alliance always disliked each other almost as much as they hated ISIS. It was only fear of the latter that forced them to cooperate, or at least not fight each other. It may not be possible to recreate the same unity of purpose against al Qaeda." Robots Are Coming for Your Job…If You're With the CIA The idea that artificial intelligence (AI) will never be able to supplant the human variety in the "delicate art" of espionage and intelligence gathering is set to be tested by the CIA, writes Jenna McLaughlin in Foreign Policy. Indeed, with 137 AI projects underway, it already is. "The intelligence community has been eyeing artificial intelligence and machine learning to replace some of the tedious tasks its analysts perform for a while now," McLaughlin says. "In June, Robert Cardillo, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, vowed to bring in robots to do 75 percent of the tasks currently being done by employees to analyze and interpret images beamed in from feeds around the globe and in space." "The CIA and other intelligence agencies have been investing in artificial intelligence for decades, and the technology is already prevalent in certain security applications including facial and voice recognition. But there are a growing number of more ambitious practical applications, including in detecting malicious hacking online and helping pilot drones and other autonomous vehicles." Venezuela: Putin's Next Anti-U.S. Adventure? The Trump administration has been "oddly silent" over Russia's role in propping up the government of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. But a combination of loans and political support suggest Vladimir Putin sees an opportunity to meddle in America's backyard, write Moises Naim and Andrew Weiss in the Washington Post.   "On the surface it may seem odd that that Russia would intervene in a country so far from its borders that appears to be hurtling toward collapse. Yet friendly ties between the Russian government and Venezuela run deep, stretching back to former leader Hugo Chávez's first trip to Moscow in May 2001. He returned 10 times before his death from cancer in 2013. Over that period Venezuela became one of the world's top clients of the Russian arms industry. Between 2001 and 2011 it purchased $11 billion worth of Russian weapons," they write.   "What we don't know is whether the financial and political costs of keeping Maduro in power will turn out to be affordable for the Kremlin. But it would surprise us if Putin passes up a chance to throw his weight around in America's backyard -- and build some healthy income streams on the side."   How the U.S. Stacks Up in Helping Poorer Countries The United States follows policies that are among the least effective in helping developing nations, according to a new report by the Center for Global Development. The rich country most dedicated to effective policies toward poorer nations? Denmark, followed by Sweden, Finland, France and Germany. The annual assessment, which ranks countries on a range of factors including trade policy and number of students accepted from developing countries, placed the United States 23rd out of 27 nations.   "The United States is now outscored by each of the Central European Visegrád countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland), whose income per head is less than half that in the United States," the report says.   "The U.S.'s best performance is in the trade and security components. However, it scores poorly on finance, environment, and aid, giving 0.18 percent of national income -- well short of the international agreement of 0.7 percent. The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord will be reflected in future years, potentially taking the U.S. score lower."   Share Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2017 CNN What did you like about today's Global Briefing? What did we miss? 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