The Korea Herald

Torture didn’t lead U.S. to bin Laden

The one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden has reignited public debate over the effectiveness of harsh interrogation techniques in U.S. antiterrorism efforts.The discussion is welcomed by an ex-CIA official who has published a book defending controversial interrogation techniques such as simulated drowning, also known as water boarding, as needed to save American lives.That might have been the case when fictional spy Jack Bauer would save the day on the old TV series 24, but top

May 6, 2012

The myth of the princelings in China

BEIJING ― The Bo Xilai saga of power, wealth, corruption and murder has brought the issue of China’s princelings (offspring of the Communist Party’s former and current senior leaders) to the front and center of the international discourse on contemporary China. Three underlying assumptions about the princelings drive the noisy speculations about Chinese politics by many mainstream commentators: The princelings form a powerful interest group, akin to a political aristocracy, that exerts decisive

May 6, 2012

[Naomi Wolf] Keyboard cops in America

NEW YORK ― Almost no one had read the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) before it was rushed through the United States House of Representatives in late April and sent to the Senate. CISPA is the successor to SOPA, the “anti-piracy” bill that was recently defeated after an outcry from citizens and Internet companies. SOPA, framed by its proponents in terms of protecting America’s entertainment industry from theft, would have shackled content providers and users, and spawned co

May 6, 2012

Europe must rethink its tough-love policy

Spain is the crucial front in Europe’s battle to contain its economic crisis, and the fight is going badly. Spain’s economy is in a tailspin. Some forecasters say the unemployment rate, already a punishingly high 24.4 percent, could reach 30 percent. The government’s credit rating has just been downgraded, and its cost of borrowing ― close to 6 percent ― is putting its solvency in question. Investors are watching the country’s banks with mounting concern. Europe’s leaders cannot blame Madrid. Ma

May 4, 2012

[Shlomo Ben Ami] Muslims find hope in Europe

MADRID ― Mohamed Merah’s killing spree in and around Toulouse in March, like the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 suicide attacks in London’s Underground, has highlighted once again the dilemmas that Europe faces with regard to its growing Muslim minority. No social-integration model has proven to be free of flaws. But is the picture really so bleak as those who despair of an emerging “Eurabia” would have us believe?Neither the multicultural ethos (respect for “cultural diversity in an at

May 4, 2012

[Shlomo Ben Ami] Muslims find hope in Europe

Modest steps at the IMF

The biannual meetings of the world’s leading financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are generally pretty staid affairs ― after all, how riled up can gatherings of central bankers and finance officials really get? In recent years, the answer is “pretty much.”Then again, a global financial crisis that refuses to go away, overlaid with (and compounded by) complaints about how the global financial architecture is run, makes for a combustible mix.At last month’s m

May 4, 2012

Taint on celebrities’ gloss

The influence of celebrities is an asset they can exploit, but they should be careful that their endorsements do not backfire and damage their image. The appeal of celebrities is an invaluable resource for brand publicity. When they recommend and praise certain products, audiences unconsciously link their reputation and personalities with the products, as if the quality and effectiveness of the products are naturally guaranteed. But appearing in advertisements is a double-edged sword for celebri

May 4, 2012

Problems of renewable energy purchases

A feed-in tariff system for electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power will face many difficult problems.An expert panel of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has made a proposal on prices at which electric power companies will purchase electricity generated by renewable energy under the system.The government will officially decide on recommended rates within May, and power companies will become obliged to buy the electricity from July.The proposed rates are 42

May 4, 2012

[Andrew Sheng] EU trilemma and global dilemma

The European think tank Breugel recently produced a report suggesting that there was a fundamental trilemma between the European monetary union, national banking systems and the lack of fiscal union. This added a twist to the old argument that for a single currency, you need a single fiscal policy. The argument for a banking union arose because European national governments were able to finance their deficits largely through their national banks, which could buy their long-term paper. This creat

May 4, 2012

[Andrew Sheng] EU trilemma and global dilemma

[Lee Jae-min] Outsourcing and quality control

In an age of globalization, states and corporations are struggling to strike a balance between traditional purity and cost reduction. On the one hand, they are desperate to maintain the supremacy of their crown-jewel national brands (and geographical indications) by imposing requirements that certain portions of products be manufactured domestically, or products be produced in a certain way to be eligible to carry the brands. With tightened quality control, they try to serve the traditional cust

May 3, 2012

[Lee Jae-min] Outsourcing and quality control

Chaebol under pressure to clean up their act

Do elections really make a difference? In the wake of parliamentary elections in South Korea last month, critics of the nation’s chaebol could be forgiven for thinking that they do not.“Chaebol” is the Korean term for the large, family-controlled conglomerates that dominate the South Korean economy. They are particularly associated with the sort of alliances between the state and the private sector that developed under the authoritarian regime of Park Chung-hee.Chaebol are also known for their l

May 3, 2012

Yes, torture can work, and yes, it’s still wrong

The anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden has renewed a yearlong debate in the U.S. The question: Did torture of captured al-Qaeda agents provide intelligence essential to that operation?Former government officials, including the CIA director, the deputy director for operations and the attorney general, say yes. In a statement last week, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin, members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called these assertions “wrong.” The committee’s compr

May 3, 2012

[Meghan Daum] Who can comment on motherhood?

In my recent column, I weighed in on the latest round in the “mommy wars”: the firestorm ignited when Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen accused Ann Romney of “never working a day in her life”; a statement President Obama then condemned, saying, “There is no tougher job tougher than being a mom.”By way of exploring the ways in which Americans are obsessed with and define themselves according to circumscribed notions of work, I submitted that maybe it was time to let go of the idea that motherhood tr

May 3, 2012

[Meghan Daum] Who can comment on motherhood?

[Charles Tannock] Russia’s alpha-dog leader returns

BRUSSELS ― Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin as Russia’s president was always a foregone conclusion. But, when he is sworn in on May 7, he will retake formal charge of a country whose politics ― even Putin’s own political future ― has turned unpredictable.Putin’s return to the presidency, following a period of de facto control as prime minister, was supposed to signify a reassuring continuation of “business as usual” ― a strong, orderly state devoid of the potentially destabilizing effects

May 3, 2012

[Charles Tannock] Russia’s alpha-dog leader returns

Money equals power in corrupt China

Now it has turned out in China that not only power corrupts, but also money. And what if the two join hand in hand? The results are dramatic, tragic, and ruinous, as the cascading events in China show. For nearly three months since February, the world has been watching a drama with suspense and disbelief. Perhaps some sadness, too.What I am talking about is the purge of Bo Xilai, who until April 10 was a high-flying Politburo member and a contender for top leadership of the Chinese Communist Par

May 2, 2012

[Howard Davies] Bringing it all back home in the wake of financial crisis

PARIS ― Global policymakers regularly congratulate themselves on having avoided the policy errors of the 1930s during the financial crisis that began in 2008. Led by U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, an economic historian of the Great Depression, they remembered the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and loosened monetary and fiscal policy to avoid the worst. We are still coping with the budgetary consequences, especially in Europe, but it is true that the world did not end in 2008.Mon

May 2, 2012

[Howard Davies] Bringing it all back home in the wake of financial crisis

Gingrich’s quest for glory ends as a punch line

Newt Gingrich never saw it ending this way. The former House speaker, who has long thought of himself as a historic figure, envisioned he would be the candidate of innovative “big ideas” and the agenda-setter for the 2012 U.S. election. This either would catapult him to the White House or ensure a consolation prize: a vice presidential nomination or secretary of State appointment in a Republican administration. In the worst case, he would be a genuine senior statesman in his party. Instead, as h

May 2, 2012

Germany’s trade unions seeking higher pay could save the euro

At times of economic crisis, politicians like to blame investors, preferably foreign investors. Harold Wilson, the British prime minister in the 1960s, pointed the finger at bankers in Zurich. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia accused George Soros of undermining his country’s financial stability in the late 1990s. And in parts of Europe today, it is increasingly common to blame hedge funds, “locust”-like investors, or even credit-default swaps for the euro-area crisis. This is almost e

May 2, 2012

[Park Sang-seek] What’s behind N. Korea’s survival?

The Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine developed the Failed States Index and have measured the degree of failure of states by using 22 quantifiable indicators every year since 2005. North Korea is one of the 20 countries which have been on the list of failed states for the last seven years (2005-11). All these countries are dictatorial, very poor, have experienced civil wars, and all but Ethiopia are former colonies. Excepting North Korea, these former colonies have gone through violent

May 1, 2012

[Park Sang-seek] What’s behind N. Korea’s survival?

Spoonful of zinc can save countless Third World kids

Addressing the health needs of the world’s most vulnerable people is often a costly and complicated undertaking. But on rare occasions, if the will is sufficient, it can be simple. So it is with the No. 2 cause of death among children in low-income countries: diarrhea. Weak health and poor nutrition can make these children especially susceptible to deadly dehydration. Among those less than 5 years old, 1.5 million die from the condition annually, mostly in Africa and South Asia. India, Nigeria a

May 1, 2012