The Korea Herald

[David Ignatius] What Trump’s Syria decision means on front lines of fight against Islamic State group

The voice of Gen. Mazloum Abdi, the Kurdish commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces militia, is tight and controlled as he describes US President’s Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from the country and leave America’s allies to their fate.“This was something we never expected,” he said somberly in a telephone interview Saturday night from his command headquarters in northeast Syria. “Honestly, until now, everything the Americans told us, they fulfilled, and the same thing for us. … So we we

Dec. 27, 2018

[David Ignatius] What Trump’s Syria decision means on front lines of fight against Islamic State group

[Shuli Ren] Ladies in red make a bull case for Vietnam

Women hold up half of the sky, or so Communist China’s founding father, Mao Zedong, liked to say. These days, that’s certainly the case in Vietnam. 　Throughout the country, many well-known businesses are run by women. There’s Mai Kieu Lien, who captured the rising middle class’s thirst for protein-rich milk drinks and built Vietnam Dairy Products JSC into a $10 billion empire. Then there’s Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, founder of budget airline VietJet Aviation JSC, who became Vietnam’s first female b

Dec. 27, 2018

[Jan-Werner Mueller] Reviving civil disobedience

With populism and authoritarianism on the rise around the world, there has been considerable talk of “resistance,” especially in the United States. A rather broad term, resistance could refer to everything from supporting opposition candidates to the life-threatening work of those who went underground to sabotage Nazi occupations during World War II. Such vagueness can cloud one’s thinking when weighing how best to achieve concrete goals.As it happens, there is a more precise alternative to “res

Dec. 26, 2018

[Jan-Werner Mueller] Reviving civil disobedience

[Editorial] College tuition

Education Ministry officials might have thought they would do a good thing for college students by freezing tuition fees for more than a decade. Maybe not.Rather, it might be the students themselves who become the ultimate victims of the measure further aggravating the financial conditions of local universities, resulting in a drop in the quality of higher education.The poor quality of higher education would combine with sluggish scientific and other fields of research at universities to weaken

Dec. 26, 2018

[Andrew Sheng] 2018: Year of competing dangerously

As the year draws to an end, 2018 was not a year of living dangerously, as most of us mere mortals want more than ever to live a quiet life. The year has also not been easy for any leader, as Theresa May knows all too well.Since the great recession of 2008, competition has been a race to the bottom in almost every sphere, but more so in politics. As competition guru professor Michael Porter wrote last year, “competition in the politics industry is failing America” (Harvard Business School, 2017)

Dec. 26, 2018

[Andrew Sheng] 2018: Year of competing dangerously

[Bobby Ghosh] Tunisia’s best hope for economic reform

Eight years after supplying the spark that lit the Arab Spring, Tunisia is again bracing for political upheaval in 2019. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed is openly scrapping with President Beji Caid Essebsi, who has in turn broken his four-year partnership with the powerful Islamist Ennahda party, the single largest party in parliament. As the head of a coalition government, Chahed is under increasing pressure from public-sector unions over salaries, and the sale of state-owned companies. Meanwhile

Dec. 26, 2018

[Anton Salman] Bethlehem’s message of hope

Bethlehem’s rich history can be fully appreciated only by walking its streets. Coming to Bethlehem is a unique experience that I would encourage everyone to pursue.Unfortunately, while visitors to Bethlehem have increased in number during the past year, many are unable to explore the city properly. Under Israeli occupation, obstacles hindering the normal development of tourism in Palestine have prevented people from experiencing what Bethlehem has to offer.For example, I often hear from Palestin

Dec. 26, 2018

[Francis Wilkinson] Liberals can hold corporations accountable

As US political parties diverge ever more distinctly into a defender of the old and the past versus an advocate of the young and the future, corporate America -- at least the parts with consumer-facing business -- is increasingly two-faced.　To the multiracial, cosmopolitan younger America with money to spend, it shows the face of the future. Meanwhile, to secure its tax preferences, deregulation and clampdown on labor rights, it spends its political money on the party of Fox News.　It’s amazing t

Dec. 26, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Inquisitors and gravediggers in society

When I first read Takano Kazuaki’s thriller “Gravedigger,” I was enthralled by the breathtaking speed of this mesmerizing novel. It tells the story of a wrongfully accused man named Yagami who has to flee from police and a group of sinister men. As an organ donor, Yagami has to safely arrive at a hospital in south Tokyo as soon as possible in order to save a child who is suffering from leukemia. To accomplish this, he has to cross Tokyo from north to south at full speed against all odds. Recentl

Dec. 25, 2018

[Kim Seong-kon] Inquisitors and gravediggers in society

[Lee Jae-min] Nonbinding, amicable procedure does not just bark, it bites, too

A dispute settlement proceeding between two states usually conjures up the image of stern-faced judges in robes under tightly controlled timeframes, and most importantly, a legally binding judgment with a serious penalty. This is very important, and many disputes go down this path. In the meantime, a notable new trend is forming. Nonbinding dispute settlement procedures that seek an amicable solution are making inroads into new treaties and agreements. This is, so to speak, a state-to-state vers

Dec. 25, 2018

[Lee Jae-min] Nonbinding, amicable procedure does not just bark, it bites, too

[Noah Smith] How China could blow its exploits

In a recent column, I observed that by many measures, China is the world’s largest economy. This means a number of benefits will now flow to China that used to go to the US and Europe. Chief among these is agglomeration, or the tendency of businesses to seek out the biggest markets and the densest concentrations of economic activity. Being the center of the global economy really does have value.　But nothing is certain, especially in realms as complex as economics and politics. China’s vast size

Dec. 24, 2018

[Noah Smith] How China could blow its exploits

[David Ignatius] Loyal soldier reached his limit

During the past year, Defense Secretary James Mattis has sometimes seemed to be running the Pentagon with clenched teeth. He kept quiet when President Trump made decisions that Mattis thought were wrong; he sat steely-eyed in White House meetings, refusing to indulge in the idolatry toward Trump of other cabinet members. He argued for the policies he thought were right and kept his mouth shut when he lost.But on Thursday night, something snapped, and the unflappable Mattis did something that’s r

Dec. 24, 2018

[David Ignatius] Syria withdrawal a risky mistake

President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to pull American troops from Syria is riskier than it looks. It ends a low-cost, high-impact mission and creates a vacuum that will be filled by one of a series of bad actors -- Iran, Russia, Turkey, Islamic extremists, the Syrian regime -- take your pick, they’re all dangerous for American interests in the Middle East. Trump’s withdrawal from northeast Syria will end a campaign that was never really seen or understood by the American people. It was a sma

Dec. 23, 2018

[David Ignatius] Syria withdrawal a risky mistake

[Ben Boychuk] Missing Dad and taking stock this Christmas

This will be the second Christmas holiday without my father. Although I miss him every day -- we used to talk on the phone, like clockwork, at 9:30 every morning -- I think I miss the cantankerous old coot the most on the big holidays.Dad could be -- how to put this? -- difficult. I’m in the opinion-writing business. Most things are debatable. My father was in the certainty business. An engineer by trade and disposition (if you’ve ever known an engineer, you’ll know what I mean), he liked things

Dec. 23, 2018

[Editorial] Mattis’ resignation

The resignation of US Defense Secretary James Mattis, announced by US President Donald Trump last week, has increased concerns about growing uncertainty over the future of the South Korea-US alliance and Washington’s approach to North Korea.Retired four-star Gen. Mattis is considered to have kept Trump in check, preventing the president from making impulsive decisions that might have pushed the Korean Peninsula to the verge of a full-scale military conflict or unraveled the bilateral alliance be

Dec. 23, 2018

[Park Sang-seek] 10 major world issues in 2018

I have selected the following 10 events as major issues in 2018:1. Growing populism and nationalism 2. Denuclearization of North Korea3. Tribalism in Africa and racism in Western Europe4. Worsening global warming and pollution5. Continuing Muslim sectarian conflicts in the Middle East6. Rapid globalization and technological change in the world7. Massive migration of people from developing countries to developed countries8. A cold war between the US and China (Cold War II)9. Global strengthening

Dec. 20, 2018

[Park Sang-seek] 10 major world issues in 2018

[Eli Lake] Trump courts catastrophe in Syria

President Donald Trump is on the verge of making a spectacularly bad decision. The White House is soon expected to announce its plans to remove the 2,000 US troops now serving in northeastern Syria.This is not totally unexpected. Trump ran for president in part on the idea of smashing the Islamic State group, but he also said there was no point in trying to stabilize the country after the terrorists were defeated. Since getting elected, he has regularly signaled that its time for US forces to le

Dec. 20, 2018

[Cass R Sunstein] Must-reads of 2018: Poker, politics and, yes, Bob Dylan

Most lists of the year’s best books reflect the personal tastes of those who produce them. This list is different. It’s entirely objective. What unites these five books is that nothing is rote or by-the-numbers about them. Each of them crackles with a kind of demonic energy.“A Crisis of Beliefs: Investor Psychology and Financial Fragility,” by Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer.What caused the financial crisis of 2008? What’s likely to cause future crises? Gennaioli and Shleifer offer an origi

Dec. 19, 2018

[Kim Myoung-sik] Top objectionables in Moon’s policy thrust in 2018

As the year’s end draws near, people tend to be more contemplative, looking back on and appraising what happened in 2018, the second year of President Moon Jae-in’s leftist rule. In my own journalistic perception, there was a rapid buildup of disappointment with the president and his staff during the year mainly in reaction to the two major directions of policy thrusts, one designed to improve workers’ lives and the other to settle wrongdoings by past powers. Key economic measures misfired, and

Dec. 19, 2018

[Kim Myoung-sik] Top objectionables in Moon’s policy thrust in 2018

[Mihir Sharma] China should remember its friends

Nobody can know if, when Deng Xiaoping launched his strategy of “Reform and Opening Up” 40 years ago, even he could have predicted the near-miraculous transformation of the Chinese economy that would follow. In the years since, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of abject poverty and into the ranks of the global middle class; China’s industrial heartland became the workshop of the world; and it has muscled its way into the first ranks of global powers.Yet the tone with which Chinese Commu

Dec. 19, 2018