[Steven Kull, J.P. Thomas] Safeguarding democracy from AI

The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted that elected officials should listen to and be influenced by the views of the electorate. As James Madison said, “It is the reason, alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government.” However, the means for government officials to hear from the people are limited. Elected officials receive emails, letters, phone calls and input at town halls, and some agencies occasionally ask for public comments on complex regu

Dec. 28, 2023

[Wang Son-taek] Beyond the security dilemma and Pyrrhic victory

Year 2023 has been another eventful year, as we have experienced in the past, and foreign and security policies are not exceptions. There were some successes in diplomacy with the Republic of Korea, but there were also many disappointing and embarrassing scenes. There has been some progress in the Korea-US alliance, Korea-Japan relations and Korea-US-Japan cooperation. However, as a reaction xto the three nations' solidarity, North Korea has shown more provocative actions, and China, Russi

Dec. 28, 2023

[J. Bradford DeLong] The US Fed's remarkable feat

Monetary-policy watchers are currently divided into two groups. But perhaps both sides should pause and reflect on where we were 18 months ago and where we are now. On one side of the divide are those of us who still obsess over the great imbalance between the supply of savings and the demand for funds for real investment. These were the conditions that underpinned a decade of zero-lower-bound (ZLB) interest rates and secular stagnation (low growth due to structurally low aggregate demand) after

Dec. 27, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] Reminiscing about the turbulent year, 2023

The tempestuous year 2023 is waning and the hopeful year 2024 is dawning. Looking back upon this past year, the best thing that happened was the announcement of the end of the COVID-19 health crisis after the pandemic had devastated the world for three years. The worst thing that happened was the terrible war between Israel and Hamas that broke out amidst the ongoing horrors of the war in Ukraine, making so many people’s lives miserable. In addition, we witnessed the awesome power of artif

Dec. 27, 2023

[Erwin Chemerinsky] Decide on Colorado's ruling quickly

The Colorado Supreme Court did the country an enormous service by ruling that Donald Trump is ineligible to be president and squarely presenting the constitutional issue before the US Supreme Court. The high court should take the case and decide quickly whether Donald Trump is disqualified from the ballot because of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It would be a political nightmare to resolve this question after Trump wins the Republican nomination or even worse, after he’s elected presi

Dec. 26, 2023

[Martin Schram] Challenges of a leader-lite world

The Donald and Bibi are two of a kind. Among the things they have in common is that they are not up to coping with the challenges of today. We are about to see why. The world has been watching as these two men well into their 70s, with courtroom trials pending, have appeared willing to do whatever it takes to regain or retain the power – and not end up in jail. Even if it meant shattering their nation’s democracy. They have seemed desperate to remain in control. Until things explod

Dec. 21, 2023

[Anastassia Fedyk, Tatyana Deryugina] Talks can’t end the Ukraine war, because Russia lies

Following the full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022, Ukraine has suffered tremendously. Tens of thousands have died, and a quarter of the country’s prewar population has been displaced. Homes, neighborhoods and entire cities have been reduced to rubble. Some question the wisdom of Ukraine continuing to fight back instead of seeking to negotiate with Russia. President Vladimir Putin himself claims he “does not reject the idea of peace talks,” while prominent figures hav

Dec. 21, 2023

[Jonathan Bernstein] Will 3rd parties hurt Biden or Trump?

With former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney’s comments that she’s considering an independent bid for president against Donald Trump, experts are beginning to game out how she and other third-party candidates could affect next year’s election. A political action committee backing independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign announced that it’s planning to spend at least $10 million to get his name on that ballot in 10 states. And the quasi-party No Labels has threatened

Dec. 20, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] For world peace, we should all be like 'The Interpreter'

The 2005 American political thriller, “The Interpreter,” directed by Sydney Pollack, illustrates how a good politician who was once a rebel leader fighting tyranny can easily turn into a dictator himself when he possesses political power. They say that you become a monster when you fight a monster. Of course, after slaying the monster, the idea is that you should return to being a normal human. Unfortunately, however, many monster fighters remain monsters and become dictators themsel

Dec. 20, 2023

[Robin Abcarian] Who will make abortion pill rules?

Here we go again. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced that it will decide whether the Food and Drug Administration has wrongly loosened the rules for abortion pills, which have been used safely for decades and now account for half of all US abortions. The case against the drug, mifepristone, was filed by a group of antiabortion physicians in a Texas federal court whose sole judge, US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, is known for his right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+, antiabortion bent. The physicia

Dec. 19, 2023

[Jeffrey Frankel] How to fix America’s broken air-traffic control system

With air travel finally returning to pre-pandemic levels, this holiday season is expected to be exceptionally hectic. Many passengers, especially in the United States, will face maddening flight delays, and many more will suffer unnecessarily long flying times. But, most worrying of all, at least a few might witness or be involved in frightening airport near-misses. To be sure, the US has an outstanding record of aviation safety, with no fatal commercial airplane crashes since 2009. But the freq

Dec. 19, 2023

[Michael Ignatieff] Universal values at bay

Seventy-five years ago last week, UN member states meeting in Paris adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was not a binding law, only a statement of principle. But it was the first declaration to embed an ancient moral ideal of human equality into the new architecture of international law established in response to the genocidal nationalism that had left so much of the world in ruins after World War II. This new moral universalism asked us to turn our backs on our instinctive par

Dec. 18, 2023

[Christine Abely] Are sanctions against Russia actually working?

In February 2022, Russian troops mounted an invasion of Ukraine. Following Russia’s flagrant violation of Ukrainian territorial sovereignty, the US joined with nations around the world to impose sanctions. Instead of military action against Russia, these countries turned to economic warfare. The world is now approaching two years of Russia’s war, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress for support after Republican lawmakers rejected US

Dec. 18, 2023

[Robert Fouser] South Korea and a second Trump term

December in the US brings short days, chilly weather, and the Holidays, but every four years it brings something else: quiet before the stormy primary season for major party nomination that begins in January. This year, however, things are different. President Joe Biden, running for reelection, is facing little serious opposition for the Democratic nomination. But with sagging approval ratings and advancing age, many doubt the viability of his candidacy. On the Republican side, former President

Dec. 15, 2023

[Wang Son-taek] Seven problems with the Asian version of NATO

It is reported that a task force enactment has been introduced in the US Congress to consider establishing an Asian version of NATO. Mike Lawler, a US congressman from New York who proposed the initiative, argued in a press release that the Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization, an Asian version of NATO, was needed to respond to the rising threats facing the US and its allies. However, the organization could be misrepresented and not help many global villagers or the US itself. We can present a long

Dec. 14, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] Do we need anger management therapy?

Due to South Korea's rapid industrialization and globalization, these days many Korean people comfortably meet a number of global standards that suit citizens of advanced countries. In this regard, foreign tourists frequently commend some laudable behaviors of Koreans, such as forming a line at the subway station, observing public etiquette and being considerate of other people. When waiting in line, foreigners say, Koreans even care about other people behind them and try to finish their bu

Dec. 13, 2023

[Peter Singer] A bargain in saving lives

In 2021, malaria caused 619,000 deaths, 77 percent of which were children under 5, and 96 percent of them in Africa. But now, after decades of research – and several false dawns – a malaria vaccine known as R21/Matrix-M (henceforth just R21) has been shown to be effective in 70-78 percent of cases. Although three doses are required before that level of protection is reached, and a booster is needed one year later, the vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford and the Serum Insti

Dec. 13, 2023

[James Stavridis] Venezuela’s threats to Guyana follow Putin’s Ukraine playbook

A nation that few Americans could find on a map, the oil-rich South American country of Guyana, is in trouble. It has a large and aggressive neighbor, Venezuela, run by an authoritarian leader who maintains close relationships with Russia, Iran, Cuba and other authoritarian states. In a move reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the dictator of Venezuela -- Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and acolyte of leftist strongman Hugo Chavez -- sponsored a referendum in his natio

Dec. 13, 2023

[Francis Wilkinson] Republican redefinition of an American

Using specific dates to define entire eras is often a gimmick, a way of compressing wild and unwieldy life into a neatly artificial package. But some days, or years, just massively overproduce, leaving behind a nation, or world, transformed. As a quote typically attributed to Vladimir Lenin has it, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” For the reactionaries who drive Republican politics today, one year looms like Godzilla over a darkenin

Dec. 12, 2023

[Mohammad Hosseini, Kristi Holmes] Beware inherent biases and inequities in AI tools

A year ago, OpenAI released ChatGPT -- a free generative artificial intelligence chatbot that creates text in response to user prompts. With its launch, millions of people started using ChatGPT for tasks such as writing school essays, drafting emails and personal greetings, and retrieving information. Increasingly, more people and public offices are using ChatGPT to improve productivity and efficiency, conducting sophisticated tasks instantaneously that are typically beyond human abilities. Pub

Dec. 12, 2023