[Editorial] No promoting NK

The Seoul Metropolitan Government provided leftist civic groups with a venue for a joint event where some participants echoed North Korea’s arguments and effectively advocated its nuclear weapons. The Seoul mayor even delivered a congratulatory address.The groups ran a contest of opinions on the April 27 South and North Korean Summit, and the award ceremony took place in the municipal government building on July 7. In the ceremony, prize winners presented their works. Most of the winners were in

July 16, 2018

[K. Ward Cummings] Judging a president by his staff

For as long as there has been a Capitol Hill, a secret list has circulated informally among staffers there bearing the names of the most difficult members of Congress to work for. Any staffer today who has worked on the Hill long enough is familiar with the list and the names that perennially appear there. They are exchanged in hushed whispers over coffee in Rayburn Cafeteria, they bounce and skip along backbenches during committee hearings, and they are discreetly shuffled across table tops in

July 15, 2018

[Therese Raphael] Trump isn’t getting the Brexit he wanted

The UK’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union represented a moment of vindication and hope for Donald Trump. No wonder he sounds worried now, as he arrives in the UK for his visit.　It’s not the protestors waiting at every stop, or even the giant orange Trump Baby balloon floating over London that’s likely to irk the thin-skinned president most. It’s the fact that a great, populist juggernaut that so closely prefigured his own rise to power is sputtering.　Trump is certainly bothered. He declared

July 15, 2018

[Ferdinando Giugliano] Emmanuel Macron gets a lesson in hubris

Emmanuel Macron can’t complain about the historical figures to whom he’s been compared since his election to the Elysee Palace. From Louis XIV to Charles de Gaulle, they show how much he embodies France’s return to the global center stage after the underwhelming presidency of Francois Hollande.　But after a shining start, the golden boy of French politics has hit a rough patch. In June, he failed to achieve the meaningful reform of the eurozone that he’d advocated. His attacks on Italy’s new popu

July 15, 2018

[Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay] Will Trump choose Russia over NATO?

For once, it seems like President Donald Trump isn’t interested in winning. Everything is in place for a great NATO summit -- defense spending is up, deterrence in Eastern Europe is strong and a united alliance will set a firm tone for Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Everything seems set. Everything, of course, except that last part.　 While Trump could use a successful NATO summit to hold Putin to account for his misdeeds in Ukraine and US election interference, he appears

July 12, 2018

[Kelly Born] Solving the disinformation puzzle

Ever since the November 2016 US presidential election highlighted the vulnerability of digital channels to purveyors of “fake news,” the debate over how to counter disinformation has not gone away. We have come a long way in the eight months since Facebook, Google, and Twitter executives appeared before Congress to answer questions about how Russian sources exploited their platforms to influence the election. But if there is one thing that the search for solutions has made clear, it is that ther

July 12, 2018

[Meghan O’Sullivan] Chinese tariffs on US energy would signal a new attitude

In placing retaliatory tariffs on certain goods and products, America’s trade partners have signaled how well they understand American politics. By targeting products from areas supportive of President Donald Trump, they clearly hope to generate pressure to lift US tariffs or even create broader political problems for the president. But China is sending much more interesting — and complex — messages with its indication that it may place retaliatory tariffs on US energy exports.　Since the 1990s,

July 12, 2018

[James Stavridis] NATO has two big problems: Putin and Trump

The NATO alliance is in a state of high tension heading into the Brussels summit this week.　In some ways, of course, we have been here before. When I served as NATO’s supreme allied commander from 2009 to 2013, we had controversy and disagreements aplenty over Afghanistan and Libya, for example, and endless arguments over equitable burden-sharing between the US and the other allies. Indeed, reports on the decline of NATO have been constant over the decades, especially immediately after the colla

July 11, 2018

[Daniel Moss] Trade war muddles China’s battle to curb debt

The start of trade hostilities between the US and China accentuates an important underlying theme in China’s own economy and the way it affects the world.　A big tussle is taking place within China that the leveling of tariffs by Washington and Beijing can only aggravate. That struggle is the effort by China to slow credit significantly: Enough to squeeze the shadow banking industry and rein in debt at state-run firms, but not so much that it causes a slump in overall growth.　Getting the balance

July 11, 2018

[Susan Shirk] How to shield Silicon Valley

President Donald Trump thankfully appears to have backed off his threat to block all Chinese investment in critical US technologies, looking instead to the US Congress to develop a more robust investment screening system. But the risk of this technological cold war spinning out of control, to the detriment of both countries, remains. Lawmakers must strike a balance between preserving economic openness and protecting national security, which means thinking both smaller and bigger than they seem t

July 11, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Look to Austria for Europe’s next leader

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has often been called the European Union’s real leader, though she’s never wanted that role and her moves in Europe have always been dictated by German domestic politics. A different chancellor seems positioned for leadership now: Austria’s Sebastian Kurz.　Few people care much about the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, which Austria assumed on July 1. It’s usually just a public relations opportunity for member states that otherwise get lit

July 10, 2018

[Shuli Ren] Unicorns are China’s innovative cavalry in trade war

A trade war can be fought on many fronts. As China breeds unicorns, they are being asked to stay at home rather than gallop overseas to enrich US investors.　The US pipeline of Chinese initial public offerings has been light since President Donald Trump started making noises about tariffs in early March. The only billion-dollar offering is the pending sale by e-commerce site Pinduoduo, for which an American listing makes sense because it competes directly with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com

July 10, 2018