Until fairly recently, it looked like two massive new agreements would compete to define the future of world trade. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, backed by the US, would try to move the global trade architecture toward new norms, with harmonized regulations at its center. Meanwhile, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, backed by China, would drastically reduce remaining tariffs across a swathe of Asia and push the existing model of trade and manufacturing as far as it could go.　The

April 11, 2017

The race is on. As Britain and the European Union begin to negotiate the terms of Brexit, Europe’s financial centers are jostling to lure banks, insurers and asset managers away from the City of London.When providers of goods and services compete for business it‘s almost always good for their customers, and this new post-Brexit rivalry needn’t be any exception. The EU should guard against a disorderly race to the bottom on corporate taxes and financial regulation -- but on the whole, there‘s muc

April 11, 2017

Protection of the innocent in war time is a marker of civilization itself — a concept so central to international law and the ancient “just war ethic” our laws and norms grew out of that it has been recognized across the millennia.So we can hardly be complacent about the unacceptable number of civilian casualties caused by drone strikes under President Barack Obama.Or about evidence that a growing number of noncombatants have been killed in even more aggressive airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since

April 10, 2017

Today, a quarter-century after the Cold War’s end, the West and Russia are again at odds. This time, though, at least on one side, the dispute is more transparently about geopolitical power, not ideology. The West has supported in a variety of ways democratic movements in the post-Soviet region, hardly hiding its enthusiasm for the various “color” revolutions that have replaced long-standing dictators with more responsive leaders -- though not all have turned out to be the committed democrats th

April 10, 2017

If this were any other year, the upcoming federal election in Germany would be like every other German election: humdrum and focused almost exclusively on domestic issues. Despite their country’s size and economic power, Germans resist seeing their nation -- or their chancellor -- as a potential world leader. More than seven decades after World War II, Germany is still uncomfortable with anything implying leadership, which makes some sense when you consider the German word for it: “fuhrung.”　Ove

April 10, 2017

As the Hollywood-esque impeachment showdown of South Korea’s first-ever president ousted by impeachment is now behind us, all eyes are on the next presidential election to be held May 9. With the election only weeks away, political circles are in a flurry over finalizing candidates, devising campaign strategy and setting out key policy pledges. It is largely expected that the next president will come from the Democratic Party of Korea, yet the experiences of Brexit and the US election in 2016 ar

April 10, 2017

To be a child in war-ravaged Syria is to know fear and suffering, death and destruction. But there is a difference, especially for children, between knowing terrible things and comprehending them.Imagine the panic and confusion early Tuesday after the bombs dropped in northern Syria as children began struggling to breathe. There was something poisonous in the air, causing asphyxiation and foaming at the mouth: a gas attack!Whole families were struck down in their homes and on the streets. Some c

April 10, 2017

Representative Devin Nunes’ decision to recuse himself from leading the congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the US presidential election is as surprising as it is welcome. His erratic behavior, much of which appeared intended to protect President Donald Trump and his top aides from scrutiny, had compromised the integrity of the probe before it even got off the ground.　That said, the investigation should continue to look into an issue that many of Nunes’s critics have derided as

April 10, 2017

Technology is so pervasive these days that we either have techno-optimism -- that everything can be solved through technology -- or technophobia -- that technology will get rid of all our jobs and create populism and protectionism. 　Trump’s tweets have changed our perception of how leaders engage with their supporters. His tweets simplify very complex issues, but strike an emotional chord. You either think its fake news or you trust the guy more. Right or wrong, they change the game.　TED is a se

April 9, 2017

Images of the human horror in Syria filled the world’s news screens this week: Infants, children, teens, adults, some strong, some weak, all helpless and hopeless. Mouths gasping for air and oozing foam, eyes staring but not seeing. The dying lay alongside the already dead.　All were innocent victims of deadly chemical weapons that Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his despotic client, Syrian President Bashar Assad, had assured the world no longer existed.　Now the world has seen with its own eyes why,

April 9, 2017

In the span of just a few days, US President Donald Trump appears to have met both his first true foreign policy crisis and his most challenging bilateral summit more smoothly than many had feared he might. Whether this turns out to be anything more than a symbolic victory, and whether it has an effect in the fight against terrorism and the effort to rein in North Korea, will depend on what he and his administration do next.Trump was clearly justified in Thursday’s decision to order cruise missi

April 9, 2017

In Donald Trump’s America, the mere act of reporting news unflattering to the president is held up as evidence of bias. Journalists are slandered as “enemies of the people.”　Facts that contradict Trump’s version of reality are dismissed as “fake news.” Reporters and their news organizations are “pathetic,” “very dishonest,” “failing,” and even, in one memorable turn of phrase, “a pile of garbage.”Trump is, of course, not the first American president to whine about the news media or try to influe

April 9, 2017

When Gen. Michael Hayden visited a secret intelligence facility in the United States a decade ago while he was CIA director, the staff gave him a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Admit Nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter Accusations.”　That motto is much-beloved by covert operators. It also seems to be President Trump’s rubric for responding to the FBI investigation of whether any members of his campaign team cooperated with Russian hackers. Maybe it’s becoming our national slogan.　There are

April 7, 2017

Children now scamper through the remaining trenches on Hill 62 in Flanders fields, where Brits endured a World War I hell of mud and shelling.　Lowland water still oozes through the thick clay of the soil within and beyond the trenches, and conjures scenes of men charging over the top and braving German fire, only to sink to their deaths in the ooze.　Today’s politics in America and Europe require us to think again about those battles.　April 6 marks the 100th anniversary of the entry of US troops

April 6, 2017