[Aziz Durrani] Resetting Southeast Asia's climate agenda

High inflation, rising interest rates, falling currencies and volatile energy prices, together with an economic slowdown and post-pandemic budget woes, may increase pressure on the ASEAN+3 -- the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, together with China, Japan and South Korea -- to scale back efforts to mitigate climate risk. While this policy shift may make fiscal sense, it is a mistake that could have grave repercussions for the region and ultimately lead to slower econom

ViewpointsNov. 1, 2022

[Jeffrey Frankel] Why do Americans vote for extremists?

American voters seem poised to hand the Republican Party control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate as well, in November’s midterm elections. The same goes for many state races, where polls show Republicans gaining ground. Such an outcome could have profound consequences for American democracy, especially if it results in even greater degradation of the US electoral system. Given the large number of 2020 election deniers running for offices in 2022 and the enormous

ViewpointsOct. 31, 2022

[Lynn Schmidt] Putting country before party

What if the way to break through our polarized politics was to reward those willing to cross the partisan divide for the greater good? America is mired in a dysfunctional stew of hyper-partisanship. Too many view members of the opposing political party as enemies and not fellow Americans. Not to mention this environment can make it difficult to govern. A multitude of books have been written about how we ended up this way. Some of those books have even offered suggestions on how we can move bey

ViewpointsOct. 28, 2022

[Mariana Mazzucato] New missions for Latin America

The war in Ukraine and the global cost-of-living crisis are hitting Latin America and the Caribbean hard. Growth in the region, which rebounded impressively from COVID-19 to reach an average rate of 6.8 percent in 2021, will fall to just 1.8 percent this year, with crippling effects on the most vulnerable people. Compared to 2021, Latin America’s poverty rate will increase by 0.9 percentage points to 33 percent, and extreme poverty will rise by 0.7 percentage points to 14.5 percent in 20

ViewpointsOct. 27, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Peace in East Asia 113 years ago and now

“On the morning of the 26th, the temperature in Harbin dropped below zero and it snowed lightly. Ahn Jung-geun changed into new clothes and headed to Harbin Station. He took a seat in a tearoom on the second floor of the third-class lounge and ordered tea. Russian military police officers stood guard outside, while foot patrol officers made their rounds with resounding footsteps.” This is Kim Hoon’s description of Ahn arriving at the scene of his self-appointed mission on Oct.

ViewpointsOct. 27, 2022

[Gearoid Reidy] The West has failed — North Korea is a nuclear state

The world might not want to hear it, but Kim Jong-un might be right. “There will never be such a thing as our abandonment of the nuclear weapons or denuclearization,” Kim declared last month. “The position of our state as a nuclear nation has become irreversible.” Decades of pursuing the “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula has failed. After North Korea last month declared itself a nuclear weapons state, it’s time for the US and its allies to accep

ViewpointsOct. 26, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Good intentions, bad outcomes

Due to cultural differences or a lack of foreign language proficiency, we are prone to misunderstanding others or making mistakes despite our good intentions. Such a tendency may result in awkward situations, and yet we should try to understand each other. Recently, for example, many Koreans were upset about the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which grants benefits to electric cars assembled in the US only. The Korean people thought that it would be unfair to Hyundai Mot

ViewpointsOct. 26, 2022

[Martin Schram] A little inflation help from the other side

President Joe Biden and his designated message-deliverers just got some crucial, last-minute insights -- from a most unlikely source -- Wednesday night. It made clear how they should be talking about the only issue that almost half of Americans say they really care about in this all-over-the-lot midterm campaign. Yep, we are talking today about the issue you assumed Democratic strategist James Carville made unforgettable with his famous 1992 campaign warning: “It’s the economy, stu

ViewpointsOct. 25, 2022

[Kim Sang-kyun] Reasons to stay away from illegal drugs

Last July, in the middle of Gangnam, a posh district in Seoul well known for the global hit K-pop song “Gangnam Style,” a man in his 20s, who took methamphetamine at a drinking party, died in a car accident on his way home. Police found 64 grams of methamphetamine in his vehicle. Recently, a smuggler carrying illegal drugs to South Korea in his stomach died after packets of drugs burst inside him. This was the first time a so-called “body-packer” had been found in South

ViewpointsOct. 25, 2022

[Andreas Kluth] Putin is making nuclear warfare new normal

Put aside, if you can, the growing anxiety about Russian President Vladimir Putin going nuclear in his barbaric war against Ukraine. Even if he doesn’t -- and the risk, though real, remains small -- he’s already brought the whole world closer to atomic disaster occurring at some point. That’s because Putin, with his repeated threats to drop nukes on Ukraine or other European countries, has in effect kicked off a new and global arms race in these diabolical weapons. He has pro

ViewpointsOct. 24, 2022

[Gi-wook Shin, Seong-hyon Lee] What should the world expect from Xi?

The 104-minute speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the country’s 20th party congress reveals a leader who believes he is on a historic mission to save China’s self-described socialism in the 21st century. Xi’s Oct. 16 speech launched the twice-a-decade meeting, where the national Communist Party appoints its leadership and announces China’s policy direction for the coming years. The address reads very much like a sequel to his previous one five years ago. At that

ViewpointsOct. 24, 2022