[Kim Seong-kon] When AI lives among us

As artificial intelligence is becoming more and more a part of our lives and has even begun to replace human beings in some lines of work, people are concerned about the relationship between humans and AI. Is AI just a convenient assistant to humanity or will it pose a potential threat? What could happen if AI outsmarts us and impersonates humans some day? What if, in the future, AI could take human form and live among us, indistinguishable from humans? Recently, the Washington Post carried an i

ViewpointsSept. 7, 2022

[J. Bradford DeLong] Why can’t we all be rich?

On Sept. 6, Basic Books is publishing “Slouching Towards Utopia,” my economic history of the “long twentieth century” from 1870 to 2010. It is past time, I argue, that we shift our understanding of where the hinge of global economic history lies. Some might put it in 1076, when the European Investiture Controversy cemented the idea that law should constrain even the most powerful, rather than being merely a tool at their disposal. Another big year is 1450, when the arriv

ViewpointsSept. 7, 2022

[Daniel R. DePetris] US, Russia, China need to communicate

The world, we are often told, is now defined by great power competition, where states like China and Russia are either seeking to overthrow the “rules-based international order” or stealthily working within the system to change it to their benefit. The Biden administration’s foreign policy strategy is prefaced in large measure on the great power paradigm, and senior US officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken frequently invoke the theme during their remarks. Part of mai

ViewpointsSept. 6, 2022

[Jane Olson] We can’t risk another Chernobyl

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, lies along the Dnieper River in southeastern Ukraine. After Russian forces brutally invaded Ukraine six months ago, they gained control of the nuclear facility early in the fighting. They based soldiers and heavy equipment there and have been using the plant as a defensive shield, lobbing shells from there and hoping Ukrainians would not risk hitting one of the six power units by counterattacking. But Russian officials say Ukraine has

ViewpointsSept. 6, 2022

[Martin Schram] A give-and-take with Gorbachev

When Mikhail Gorbachev walked into the room for our interview in Moscow, he brought with him the impressive aura of a man who was still a sitting president, a confident leader who was prepared to devote just a bit of his busy schedule to yet another ho-hum exercise of message deliverance, with yet another Western journalist. This one with a camera crew. I had hoped for something more journalistically promising -- a somewhat spontaneous (and more productive) give-and-take. After all, it had been

ViewpointsSept. 5, 2022

[Nicholas Goldberg] Was George W. Bush worst president?

Twenty years ago this month, President George W. Bush stood before the United Nations and warned that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was a “grave and gathering danger,” setting the stage for an invasion six months later based on false premises about super-destructive weapons and purported connections to the 9/11 attacks. The war ultimately killed 4,500 Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqis, and cost the United States $800 billion, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. I'

ViewpointsSept. 2, 2022

Vietnam reaffirms commitment to international peace, stability on 77th national day

Vietnam reaffirmed its commitment to international peace, stability and cooperation with Korea celebrating National Day and the 30th anniversary of Vietnam-Korea diplomatic relations on Friday at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul. Vietnam’s Independence Day, which falls on Friday, commemorates Vietnam’s declaration of independence from France and reading of the declarations of independence of Vietnam by Vietnam’s first President Ho Chi Minh at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi in 1945. Vietnam wa

Foreign AffairsSept. 1, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Yellow light on Yoon’s ‘audacious initiative’

Despite skepticism and foreseeable hurdles, President Yoon Suk-yeol’s “audacious initiative” to North Korea deserves attention. But it does so only if the Yoon administration has a workable roadmap to beat the odds stacked by domestic and international concerns. Yoon has embarked on a familiar economic path. In his Liberation Day speech on Aug. 15, he unveiled a slew of aid projects in exchange for nuclear disarmament in the North. He offered food, assistance for power generati

ViewpointsSept. 1, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] The shape of Korea resembles a trophy

Korean people commonly say that the image of the Korean Peninsula on a map seems to resemble a rabbit. The comparison is telling: Since a rabbit is a docile animal constantly threatened by ferocious predators, it matches the geopolitical situation of Korea, surrounded by belligerent neighboring countries. On the other hand, some optimists have come up with an opposite theory, that the Korean Peninsula resembles not a rabbit, but a crouching tiger that is ready to jump and fight back. Meanwhi

ViewpointsAug. 31, 2022

[Andrew Sheng] Is civilization in decline, clashing or rejuvenating?

We have been here before -- catastrophe, carnage, collapse, climate calamities, war. This hottest summer of discontent is prelude to a freezing winter of gas shortage, inflation and more conflicts. As Europe, China and parts of America are facing heat waves and drought, a global food calamity is looming. Without any exit strategy on the Ukraine war, we face a prolonged period of stalemate, devastation and less willingness to negotiate even cease-fires. The rising global uncertainties mean th

ViewpointsAug. 30, 2022

[Gareth Evans] Australia’s minister of everything

Australia continues to be a source of bemused fascination to students of Western parliamentary democracy. After a pantomime period not so long ago in which the country changed its leader five times in five years, it has now been revealed that our most recently defeated prime minister, Scott Morrison, contrived over the past two years effectively to appoint himself minister to no fewer than five other major government departments. Moreover, Morrison did so without -- except in one case -- the kno

ViewpointsAug. 30, 2022

[Martin Schram] Putin’s trumped-up war

Every time Vladimir Putin’s obliging generals dispatch a soldier to the front lines of their “special military operation” in Ukraine, they give him a gift from their supreme commander. It is a lengthy and very creative essay rewriting the history of their homeland and the country they’ll be invading. It is titled: “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” And it ends with the proud author, Vladimir Putin, leaving them with four words to inspire th

ViewpointsAug. 29, 2022