[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea’s generational happiness gap

Happiness popped back in the news recently with the release of the “2024 World Happiness Report.” The report made waves in the US because of a sharp drop in happiness, particularly among people under the age of 30, which fell to 62nd. The country ranked 23rd, marking the first time that the US dropped out of the top 20, out of 143 countries surveyed. The report made fewer waves in South Korea because it confirmed the established media narrative, both domestic and international, that

April 5, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] A tale of two ambassadors

Korean Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup resigned only 25 days after his appointment. Chung Jae-ho, the ambassador to China, is under investigation after an embassy staffer reported the abuse of power. It might be better to avoid such shameful stories, but the stories of the two ambassadors dramatically show the critical vulnerabilities of Korean diplomacy. It might be worth a detailed review in that they undermine -- not maximize -- the national interests of Korea. Ex-Ambassador Lee Jong-sup

April 4, 2024

[Ana Palacio] Germany’s weakness is bad for Europe

Once the “sick man of Europe,” Germany seems to be under the weather once again. That might be putting it mildly: much as it did in the late 1990s, Germany is staring down the barrel of “stagflation” -- high inflation and unemployment combined with stagnant demand and low growth. A lack of effective political leadership further darkens the outlook for Germany -- and for the European Union that depends on it. France might be the EU’s second-largest economy, a nuclear

April 4, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Waiting for Aquaman who bridges land and sea

While I was watching the 2018 American superhero films, “Aquaman” and its 2023 sequel, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” I realized that South Korea desperately needed political leaders like Aquaman. In the movie, Aquaman bridges two radically different worlds: the land and the sea. Aquaman can thus be seen as a symbol of the ideal political leader: one who can quench our thirst for peace and harmony by mediating other binary oppositions, such as progressivism and conservat

April 3, 2024

[Mark Jones] The Hitler trial‘s lessons in the Trump era

On April 1, 1924, Adolf Hitler should have been terrified. Four and a half months earlier, the Nazi leader had led a failed coup d’etat in Munich, the Bavarian capital. Inspired by the Italian Fascist Benito Mussolini, Hitler had planned to march his supporters on to Berlin, where they would destroy the democratic Weimar Republic. The insurrection began just after 8 p.m. on Nov. 8, 1923, when Hitler and his followers burst into a political rally and held the crowd hostage. During the drunk

April 2, 2024

[Noah Feldman] Flimsy abortion pill argument in US

Abortion is back at the Supreme Court. The case contests decisions by the Food and Drug Administration to make the drug mifepristone available by mail and via telemedicine. But at oral argument on Monday, the court that overturned Roe v. Wade seemed poised to reject the arguments of the pro-life Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. No, the conservative justices haven’t suddenly discovered a new sympathy for the right to choose. Rather, several of the conservatives, alongside the court’

April 2, 2024

[Alison L. LaCroix] Texas and the perpetual crisis of American federalism

By claiming that it has the power to enforce its own immigration policy, even when that policy conflicts with federal law, Texas has reignited a debate about federalism that is as old as the United States itself. But with so many commentators invoking the past to justify their positions, it is crucial to get the history right. Many cite the Civil War as an analogy to -- and a cautionary tale for -- the current moment. But the more accurate benchmark is not the war itself; it is the five decades

April 2, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Economic challenges and April election

South Korea entered into full-scale election mode late last week, with political parties launching their official campaigns to stretch until the April 10 poll to elect all 300 members of parliament. The election is held as the country struggles to overcome daunting challenges from virtually all fronts at home and abroad. Even before the official campaign period started, major parties and their candidates had already been engaged in various events across the country to meet and directly appeal to

April 1, 2024

[Howard Davies] Are global capital rules possible?

What’s in a name? The final proposals for bank-capital rules were dubbed Basel 3.1, as if to suggest a minor tidying-up exercise – just a few grace notes added to a melody composed long ago. But banks, concerned that the implications would be more severe, spoke of Basel 4, implying not grace notes, but a reworking of the entire composition, now in a major key. That name didn’t stick. Regulators insisted that it was not a new tune, and that anyone who could sing Basel 3 would ha

April 1, 2024

[Daniel DePetris] Can UN stop bloodshed in Gaza?

The United Nations Security Council, the UN’s most important body, is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. If there is a threat to the peace, the Security Council is supposed to meet, deliberate and adopt measures to curtail aggression and safeguard international law. It’s a weighty responsibility for any country represented on the panel, particularly for the permanent members -- the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China -- most a

March 29, 2024

[Mariana Mazzucato] How to save the pandemic treaty

Recent drafts of a global pandemic treaty have been widely criticized as “shameful and unjust.” When the latest round of negotiations opened on March 18, it was clear that a key lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic was being ignored: public health and the health of the economy are interdependent. Achieving both requires rewriting the rules of how health and well-being are valued, produced, and distributed -- and how economies are governed. The treaty’s success will depend on member

March 28, 2024

[Martin Schram] Free Hamas’ Israeli and Gaza civilian hostages

We are in a world of trouble. Wherever we look these days, all kinds of hell is happening. Or just happened. Or may soon happen. For Gaza’s 2 million-plus Palestinians, things are about as bad as things can get. Yet, a mind-boggling new poll just revealed most Gaza Palestinians are still clueless about who to blame for their misery that has shattered their lives. Also: World leaders appear clueless about what, if anything, they can or should do about it. A half century ago, Israel’s

March 28, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] The April 2024 election will decide our future

People say that the future is full of “hopes.” Alexander Pushkin expresses the sentiment well in his celebrated poem, “Should This Life Sometime Deceive You”: “Our heart lives in the future, so/ What if gloom pervades the present?” (Translated by Genia Gurarie). However, foreseeing the ominous dark clouds ahead of us, we can only “hope” to survive the perfect storm awaiting us. For an example of this “perfect storm,” take the recent pre

March 27, 2024

[Jeffrey Frankel] Democrats are better for the US economy

Under President Joe Biden, the US economy has performed much better than virtually anyone predicted. And yet voters seem not to realize it -- an apparent puzzle that has been much discussed lately. In fact, this disconnect between popular perception and economic performance is nothing new. Since World War II, the US economy has consistently done better during Democratic administrations, yet a large share of Americans -- possibly even a majority -- believe that Republicans are better economic ste

March 27, 2024

[Anika Collier Navaroli, Ellen K. Pao] Everyone wants to rein in Facebook, TikTok and other social media. This is one obvious solution

Powerful technology has perhaps never presented a bigger set of regulatory challenges for the US government. Before the state primary in January, Democrats in New Hampshire received robocalls playing AI-generated deepfake audio recordings of President Joe Biden encouraging them not to vote. Imagine political deepfakes that, say, incite Americans to violence. This scenario isn’t too hard to conjure given new research from NYU that describes the distribution of false, hateful or violent

March 26, 2024

[Grace Kao] How makgeolli signals virtue in K-dramas

Makgeolli, a milky-colored and lightly carbonated type of Korean rice wine, is a common topic of conversation in our household. Since 2015, my husband, Jeff Rubidge, has been brewing and uploading videos about makgeolli for his YouTube channel. It is a modest drink that only requires three ingredients to brew: rice, nuruk (a Korean fermentation starter) and water. It can be purchased for less than US $2 per bottle in Korea. I have also noticed its role in signaling virtue in K-dramas. Let me exp

March 26, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Won weakness outlasting forecasts

The foreign exchange rate is an important price variable not just in the sense that it influences a wide range of economic activities such as exports and imports, but because it is often taken as reflecting the comparative strength of a country’s economic fundamentals against others. It also influences and is influenced by the country’s macroeconomic policies. South Korea is paying especially close attention to the exchange rate movement because it is a very open economy, relying hea

March 25, 2024

[Media Art Now] Lee Eun-hee renders palpable the mechanics of stress

That digital is immaterial is simply a delusion, but this idea is not easy to dispel. We hold a screen, whether it be a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop, but looking at only the images on it, we are not really conscious of the physical machines. We tend to forget about them or take them for granted. However, the digital world we live in today is reliant on mechanical infrastructure and on natural resources, perhaps more critically so than ever. Think about the digital blackout caused by physical

March 24, 2024

[Robert J. Fouser] Seoul as a multilingual city

When people think of multilingual cities, big names like New York and London immediately come to mind. Other important global hubs, such as Brussels, Dubai, Singapore, and Toronto are known for their linguistic diversity. But what about Seoul? With 95 percent of its residents being native speakers of Korean who were born in South Korea, Seoul does not give the impression of being a multilingual or multicultural city. At 5 percent, the percentage of residents born abroad is high by historical sta

March 22, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Democracy summit and dispute over autocratization

The third Summit for Democracy was held in Seoul for three days from March 18. The event was significant because foreign ministers of major countries gathered to discuss Democracy for future generations and the sensitive problems from cutting-edge technologies, including Artificial Intelligence. In particular, Korea, one of the poorest countries and one of the military dictatorships 50 years ago, is proud to have become a prosperous country and hold a democracy summit. However, according to the

March 21, 2024