March was horrifically marred by IS bombings in Brussels, which tragically claimed the lives of 32 victims and united the world in mourning. Linked to the Paris attacks and following on from a number of plots foiled by security services, the fear of terrorism may now be a permanent fixture in Western European capitals.
And yet last month held some positives too. One of the Cold War’s greatest squabbles came one step closer to resolution, and Russia’s favourite judo champion finally put his muscles away and called off his troops in Syria. To top it all off, a robot finally outsmarted its human opponent in a notoriously tricky game of strategy. Sad news for the man he defeated, great news for all of us hoping a robot butler will take care of us in retirement.
Putin Pulls Out — 15 March
In a move that surprised observers in the West, Vladimir Putin announced a full withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria. Russia has been intervening in the Syrian Civil War since September 2015, conducting airstrikes against Islamic State and opposition targets. President Putin, however, believes that the intervention has achieved its goals, and is treating the withdrawal as a victory.
There are hopes that the decreased Russian military presence will aid attempts to find a political resolution to the conflict, but Putin’s broader motives are difficult to gauge. The Russian and Syrian governments denied speculation that a feud had developed between the two allies, and Russian forces have indeed been successful in strengthening the hand of President Assad against opposition forces. Most likely is that Putin hopes to avoid emulating the West by engaging in a protracted and expensive conflict in the Middle East whilst the Russian economy begins to slow.
The Quiet Man Turns up the Volume — 18 March
The UK Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, resigned in protest at the Treasury’s plans to cut £1.2 billion from disability benefits, claiming that he was unable to watch passively as benefits were ‘salami sliced’.
The move confused some, as Duncan Smith’s resignation came just hours after the Treasury shelved plans for the cuts. The former Work and Pensions Secretary has never previously expressed humanitarian concerns with the scale of spending cuts. Many speculated that Duncan Smith, a prominent Eurosceptic, was engaged in devious powerplay ahead of the referendum on EU membership, which has divided the Conservative Party. One commentator, however, speculated that he was simply too dim to pull off that kind of tactical masterstroke. Nonetheless, the move has dealt a severe blow to George Osborne’s aspirations for the leadership.
The Tory government psychodrama will only deepen with the possibility of Zac Goldsmith’s defeat in the May London Mayoral election and Conservative splits ahead of the EU membership.
¿Que Bolá Obama? — 20 March
One of the last bastions of Cold War conflict came a little closer to falling as Barack Obama became the first US President to visit Cuba in 88 years, perhaps signalling the beginning of a thaw in US-Cuban relations.
Cuba has been subject to a devastating trade embargo by the US since Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government took over American businesses in 1960. US intelligence services then proceeded to sponsor a number of comically inept plots by exiled right-wingers to topple the Communist regime.
For now, it looks unlikely that the embargo will end, but relations are normalising. American citizens have been, since 2014, permitted to take $400 worth of goods home with them, so it might not be long before the Castros see top-hatted Yanqui imperialists chomping on Cuban cigars.
Terror in Brussels — 22 March
Islamic State claimed responsibility for a series of bombings that ripped through the Belgian and European Capital. The bombs, detonated at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek Metro station, claimed the lives of 32 victims.
The attacks came just days after the shooting and arrest of Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was believed to have close links with Belgian extremist cells, in Belgium. It is thought that Abdeslam’s arrest spurred other terror cells into action.
Brussels is thought to harbour a well-organised network of terror cells, with the Brussels bombers having close links to the perpetrators of the Paris attacks. Two of the attackers, brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, were already on police watchlists. Turkish authorities claimed to have deported Ibrahim el-Bakraoui to the Netherlands in 2015 and suspected him of having fought for Islamic State in the Syrian Civil War.
A week after the attacks, young men in the Molenbeek area of Brussels received text messages imploring them to ‘make the right choice’ and ‘fight the Westerners’.
The Singularity is Nigh — 15 March
Artificial Intelligence developed by Google beat one of the world’s best Go players, Lee Sedol, 4–1 in a best-of-five showdown. This might not seem like a big deal — computers have been capable at beating top humans at Chess for 20 years. Go, however, is known to be far more difficult for computers to master. The ancient Chinese game has relatively simple rules but more possible moves than chess and relies far more on a vague sense of intuition, making it more difficult for computers to number-crunch their way to victory by calculating the consequences of each move. Artificial intelligence was not expected to be capable of beating a top human for another decade.
AlphaGo used a different system to the so-called brute force of chess computers, known as deep learning. The computer’s hardware and software was constructed to mimic the network of neurons in the human brain, bringing it closer to human patterns of analysis. The computer then simulated millions of games and analysed new moves as it went.
The implications of AlphaGo’s win are pretty significant. With the rate at which deep learning is progressing, it may not be long before we finally have computers that are able to reasonably simulate human intelligence in all walks of life.
Europe’s Refugee Deal — 18 March
The European Union agreed a deal with the Turkish government to try and limit the influx of migrants across EU borders. Under the terms of the deal, Turkey agreed to take back any migrants picked up by authorities in Greece. In exchange, the EU has offered the Turkish government around £4.7 billion to assist the 2.7 million refugees in Turkey.
The agreement has been widely criticised for turning Turkey into a giant ‘buffer zone’ and a de facto EU holding centre. In effect, the EU is shunning responsibility by pushing the problem outside its borders, creating a ‘fortress Europe’ and leaving refugees to stew in underfunded refugee camps. Along with a ‘one-in, one-out’ swap of refugees with Turkey, it is intended to close off the route across the Aegean sea, which claimed the lives of 244 refugees in January. Without a more comprehensive solution to the problem, sea routes will probably shift and fail to stem overall migration into the EU.
No Steely Resolve — 30 March
Tata Steel, which employs 15,000 workers in the UK, announced that it would sell off all of its UK operations. The move is predicted to cause massive job losses and devastate local economies dependent on the industry.
The changes threaten to destroy what is left of the UK steel industry which, depending on your perspective, would pose a huge threat to national security or have a terrible human cost. One thing is certain — once heavy industry and plant are gone, it’s difficult to bring them back.
Part of the problem stems from China’s dumping of huge amounts of heavily subsidised steel on global markets, keeping prices artificially low. Steel industry subsidies are technically forbidden under EU law. One option for the UK government is a massive bailout and/or nationalisation, as it did with the banks in 2008. Nationalisation and protectionism are anathema to the Conservative government, with George Osborne even accused of being a ‘ringleader’ in blocking attempts to impose EU tariffs on Chinese steel.
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