[Lee Kyong-hee] The art of apologizing: UK, Germany and Japan

Among the flood of tributes to Queen Elizabeth II that followed her passing was recollections of her 2011 visit to Ireland, the first by a British monarch in a century. It was a trip for healing, though there were doubts about its success. “I was raised in an Irish family baked in bitterness about British oppression,” wrote New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. Her op-ed piece was about the new King Charles III having been overshadowed by his late ex-wife Princess Diana and his moth

Oct. 13, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] 3 cheers for 50 years of Literature & Thought

This month, the famed literary magazine Literature & Thought published its 600th issue, commemorating its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1972 by the late professor Lee O-young, the magazine has not only survived, but also thrived for half a century, steering Korean literature in the right direction and significantly contributing to upgrading it from national to world literature. Considering that it is a monthly magazine, the longevity of Literature & Thought amazes us, especially in this e

Oct. 12, 2022

[Simon Johnson] OPEC’s mistaken move for Russia

On Oct. 5, OPEC+ announced a dramatic reduction in production quotas, by 2 million barrels per day. According to oil ministers, the goal is to boost crude prices and “encourage investment” in the sector -- making it sound like they are doing the world a favor. In fact, this is an extraordinarily harmful step that will push oil prices up -- when the global economy is in a precarious state amid persistent inflation pressures. Americans may first notice the effects at the gas pump.

Oct. 12, 2022

[Shang-Jin Wei] Liz Truss vs. the Bank of England

Following a week of financial-market turbulence, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced to scrap her plan to abolish the 45 percent top income tax rate for high earners. This U-turn, an attempt to counter a stunning market sell-off that caused the pound to crash and saw the Bank of England launch a massive bond-buying program to prevent “material risk to UK financial stability,” is a necessary first step toward stabilizing the economy. But unless Truss reverses more of the tax cuts

Oct. 11, 2022

[Peter Singer] Research ethics and nonhuman subjects

In August, Springer Nature, the publisher of 3,000 academic journals, including the Nature portfolio of the world’s most influential science journals, announced new ethics guidance for its editors, addressing the balance between academic freedom and the risk that publication of some research will harm specific groups of humans. The guidance also mentions, though much more briefly, research using animals. There are long-established guidelines proscribing the publication of articles based on

Oct. 11, 2022

[Elizabeth Shackelford] The hope and warning of Iran’s protests

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody last month sparked the country’s biggest protests in years. Under the rallying cry, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” protesters have ground dozens of cities to a halt. The response from Iran’s authoritarian regime has been swift and harsh, with security forces opening fire on crowds and killing dozens. Though the protesters remain undeterred, it’s hard to imagine how they prevail. When the regime in power has a m

Oct. 10, 2022

[Akira Kawamoto] Kishida must take bolder steps to regain public trust

No one could have foreseen that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s popularity would nosedive so soon after the Liberal Democratic Party triumphed in July’s election to the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. Until recently, Kishida’s government received consistently high approval ratings. But the LDP’s links to a controversial religious group, along with the costly state funeral of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, have shaken Kishida’s political base, endangerin

Oct. 10, 2022

[Martin Schram] When Bill covered up for Boris

The world has watched in shock, outrage and disbelief, as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin brazenly invaded his sovereign neighbor Ukraine -- in a full-speed-ahead aggression that ended up with Putin cornering himself and entrapping much of the world in the mess he single-handedly created. Then he made his godawful situation much worse by threatening the world with nuclear blackmail -- yes, a threat to use his nuclear arsenal if any nation tries to stop him from seizing as much Ukrainian

Oct. 6, 2022

[Kim Myong-sik] Yoon should not expect favors from public broadcasters

In the press world, a “pool reporter” covering a major public event on behalf of a certain group of journalists has to provide the content he or she obtained on the mission for all members simultaneously so that media outlets are given the same opportunities. The MBC-TV cameraman who accompanied President Yoon Suk-yeol on his visit to New York last month and was chosen to cover his participation in President Joe Biden’s Global Fund conference on Sept. 22 caught the South Korean

Oct. 6, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] When Nobel Prize season rolls around

Recently, Koreans were elated by the news that June Huh and Lim Yun-chan received the Fields Medal in math and the Gold Medal in the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, respectively. Another piece of good news that delighted Korean Americans was that Jina Kang was selected as the Distinguished Young Woman of California. Originally, Kang was chosen as the Distinguished Young Woman of LA last spring. Then through the state competition, she became the Distinguished Young Woman of California in July. Now

Oct. 5, 2022

Indonesia highlights dynamics of bilateral ties with Korea on 77th independence day

Indonesia embassy highlighted dynamics of bilateral ties with Korea celebrating its 77th independence day in Seoul on Sept. 28. Commemorating the independence day under the theme of ‘Recover Faster, Rise Stronger,’ the embassy invited Korean government officials, parliament members, diplomatic corps, businessmen, academics, and friends of Indonesia numbering more than 300 guests at the Floating Island Convention Center in Seoul. Dressed in traditional Javanese Jawi Jangkep, Indonesia

Oct. 4, 2022

[Lee In-hyun] Jacqueline du Pre, the greatest UK cellist

I received very sad news on Sept. 8. Queen Elizabeth II passed away at Balmoral. She was 96 years old. This year is the queen’s platinum jubilee, marking the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth becoming the British monarch. Not only the British people, but many people around the world mourned her death, including myself. As I was reading an article about Queen Elizabeth II, I suddenly remembered a woman. Her name was Jacqueline du Pre, who was an unfortunate cellist. When I heard her nam

Oct. 4, 2022

[Arjun V.K. Sharma] Climate change to spawn next pandemic

The threat of climate change conjures certain scenes: Smoke billowing from a forest aflame. Smothering heat clinging to the distorted asphalt of a densely packed street. Glaciers breaking off into a rising sea. Another scenario should be equally terrifying but is harder to envision: A virus leaving the animal that has played blind host for an encroaching human being. For years, scientists have been warning us about an unsettling reality: that climate change will make pandemics more likely in our

Oct. 4, 2022

[Lyle Goldstein] Biden pokes at China again over Taiwan. At what cost to US national interests?

President Joe Biden’s foreign policy deserves higher marks than most have given it. Biden boldly pulled the plug on the Afghanistan quagmire, so that Americans could stop hemorrhaging blood and treasure in an endless war. He has performed a delicate “Goldilocks routine” with respect to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine: giving a vital assist to save Kyiv, while balancing that support with caution, asserting, “We’re trying to avoid World War III.” That

Sept. 30, 2022

[M. Niaz Asadullah] Asia’s captive market for migrant labor

COVID-19 has disrupted labor markets virtually everywhere, pushing millions of migrant workers into poverty. In high-income Asian countries, the pandemic has highlighted these workers’ vulnerability to redundancy, pay cuts, and exclusion from vital social safety nets. The authorities in Singapore and Malaysia have deported some of those who spoke out against inadequate provisions or mistreatment in the workplace. But, as global supply chains are restored and economies reopen, employers are

Sept. 29, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Simple thinking, rough speech and dishonesty

Among all the 12 first ladies we have had since the founding of the Republic, Kim Keon-hee is certainly one of a kind. A few of her predecessors raised eyebrows for occasionally inappropriate activities but none of them faced the level of rumors that shroud Kim. Suspicion surfaced during the presidential campaign, when there were whispers of Kim’s involvement in Deutsch Motors stock price manipulation and plagiarism of her academic papers as well as illegal business activity by her mother.

Sept. 29, 2022

[Robert D. Kaplan] Russia, Iran, and the perils of post-autocracy

Sometimes a news cycle constitutes more than just noise. It provides a loud, uncanny signal about what may lie beyond the horizon. That happened this month, when a more hopeful, dangerous, and radically different geopolitics came into view. Within literally a few days of each other, we have witnessed the near-collapse of the Russian army in Ukraine and the humiliation of a regime in the streets of Iranian cities. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s soldiers revealed themselves to be littl

Sept. 28, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] The country that our children will inherit

What kind of country do we want to hand over to our children? We should ponder that question constantly and seriously because we have a solemn responsibility to bequeath a healthy, prosperous country to our descendants. If we end up bestowing a sick, unstable country to our children and thus make them live miserably, we should suffer regrets and immitigable guilt forever. We vote for politicians with the hope that they will run the country skillfully and ensure peace. Unfortunately, it seems the

Sept. 28, 2022

[Nicholas Agar] Should humanities professors be automated?

There has been much hand-wringing about the crisis of the humanities, and recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have added to the angst. It is not only truck drivers whose jobs are threatened by automation. Deep-learning algorithms are also entering the domain of creative work. And now, they are demonstrating proficiency in the tasks that occupy humanities professors when they are not giving lectures: namely, writing papers and submitting them for publication in academic journals. Coul

Sept. 27, 2022