The Korea Herald

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] International sanctions impede Burma’s transition

YANGON ― Here in Myanmar (Burma), where political change has been numbingly slow for a half-century, a new leadership is trying to embrace rapid transition from within. The government has freed political prisoners, held elections (with more on the way), begun economic reform, and is intensively courting foreign investment.Understandably, the international community, which has long punished Myanmar’s authoritarian regime with sanctions, remains cautious. Reforms are being introduced so fast that

March 12, 2012

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] International sanctions impede Burma’s transition

Time for a more mature debate on nuclear

It is now a year since the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima disaster, the largest nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Inevitably, the episode has prompted renewed debate about nuclear power. Since Fukushima, important developments have taken place. Germany has decided to shut down its fission plants. Moreover, in a referendum, 95 percent of the Italian public opposed plans to restart a nuclear program in the country. However, the United States (where public support

March 12, 2012

Why do the Kochs want to kill the Cato Institute?

It seems the effort by billionaires Charles and David Koch to take control of the libertarian Cato Institute is going poorly. “We are not acting in a partisan manner, we seek no ‘takeover’ and this is not a hostile action,” Charles Koch told Bloomberg News. When you are denying partisanship, takeover ambitions and hostile intentions in one sentence, you probably need to rethink your PR strategy. The Koch brothers have long supported Cato, which they helped found in Washington in 1977. Recently,

March 12, 2012

China shifts focus to quality of economic growth

The heavier-than-ever brake China will put on this year’s economy attests to its greater determination to bid farewell to the past GDP-dominated economic model and improve the quality of economic growth and its effects.In his government work report, delivered to the National People’s Congress on Monday, Premier Wen Jiabao announced that the country’s GDP growth will be set at 7.5 percent in 2012 to “expedite its economic transformation and increase the quality of its economic growth.”The slowest

March 12, 2012

[Yukiya Amano] Nuclear power after Fukushima

VIENNA ― Nuclear power has become safer since the devastating accident one year ago at Fukushima, Japan. It will become safer still in the coming years, provided that governments, plant operators, and regulators do not drop their guard.The accident at Fukushima resulted from an earthquake and tsunami of unprecedented severity. But, as the Japanese authorities have acknowledged, human and organizational failings played an important part, too.For example, Japan’s nuclear regulatory authority was n

March 12, 2012

[Yukiya Amano] Nuclear power after Fukushima

Clinton’s Triumph at State Raises Bar for Next Act

What a difference four years makes if you’re Hillary Clinton. In March 2008, though she would remain a presidential candidate for several more months and win some big primaries, she was defeated and discredited. Barack Obama was sweeping most contests and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was unacceptable for then-Senator Clinton to try to use controversial rules to wrest the nomination. Obama’s campaign outperformed hers, starting with the Clinton miscalculation that her support for the Iraq W

March 12, 2012

Iran-Israel History Suggests a Different Future

Apparently, it is reckless to think that India could bring about a rapprochement between Iran and the U.S. That, at least, is the view of some readers of my last column on India’s lenient attitude toward Iran’s nuclear program. They reprimanded me for being naive. For Iran, run by Islamic fundamentalists committed to the destruction of Israel, desires no such reconciliation with the country Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini indelibly called the “Great Satan.” Alas, such a view, which sees fixed essenc

March 12, 2012

[David Ignatius] U.S., Pakistan take a breather

WASHINGTON ― After several years of a passionate but star-crossed courtship, the U.S. and Pakistan seem to be trying something different: A calmer, quieter relationship with lower expectations, greater distance and fewer feuds. The two countries, in effect, have taken a step back from their intense partnership and moved toward a more pragmatic framework. If this were a marriage, you wouldn’t speak of a divorce, or even a separation, but of a cooling off ― with each side happy to have a bit more

March 11, 2012

[David Ignatius] U.S., Pakistan take a breather

The reign of robots may be closer than you think

The futurist Ray Kurzweil has famously predicted that humanity is approaching a “singularity,” a fateful moment when our technology becomes smarter than us and able to learn faster than we can, when it becomes the principal creator of new technologies and machines race far ahead of us. Humans may effectively fall out of the loop ― a species demoted, if not eliminated. For now, this world remains science fiction, at least at the level of humanity. But finance is flirting with a similar transition

March 11, 2012

An Israeli attack on Iran would be a mistake

Despite extraordinary election-year pressure, President Obama stood up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week and refused to be dragged into still another war ― this one against Iran.And for that I admire him because, should Israel’s right-wing government make the great mistake of attacking Iran ― as some Israelis leaders are tacitly threatening to do ― the United States is almost certain to be drawn into the fighting.Over several days, Obama repeatedly pledged that he would atta

March 11, 2012

[Andrew Sheng] Greening urban growth ― green networks, not gridlock

Two days at the recent Conference on Greening Urban Growth in Penang allowed me to catch up on the latest thinking about the environmental impact of urban development. The impact of industrial pollution is with us every day, with daily smog, contaminated water and coughs and colds that don’t go away. In 2011, the population of the world reached 7 billion. It took 5,000 years for man to reach 20 million, but by 1800 it became 1 billion. In 1950, it was only 2.5 billion, which meant that in my lif

March 11, 2012

[Andrew Sheng] Greening urban growth ― green networks, not gridlock

[Shlomo Ben Ami] The agony of transition in Syria

MADRID ― The English author and priest William Ralph Inge once said that “A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit on it.” Syria’s Assad dynasty, however, seems to believe that it can defy that dictum. Historically, few autocrats have understood that change produced peacefully by government is the most viable conservative solution to popular demands, and the best way to avoid violent revolution. This is the wisdom that Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi, Tun

March 9, 2012

[Shlomo Ben Ami] The agony of transition in Syria

Diplomacy must prevail before any military action

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned U.S. President Barack Obama that Israel must be “master of its fate” and therefore any decision to attack Iran over its nuclear ambitions is really up to the Jewish state alone.Israel has not, reportedly, made any decision to attack Iran’s nuclear sites but there is no indication from the recent exchanges between the two leaders that Netanyahu is going to back away from the possibility of using a preemptive, unilateral military strike to destr

March 9, 2012

The worrisome state of Indonesian corruption

Corruption has been declared such an extraordinary crime in Indonesia that the state has established the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on top of the other two institutions with prosecutorial powers ― the Attorney General’s Office and the National Police ― and the Corruption Courts distinctly separate from the regular District Courts nationwide in an attempt to eradicate this acute and ingrained social illness.Still, various antigraft measures have apparently failed to prevent Indonesia

March 9, 2012

China must be transparent over its military spending

China is continuing to beef up its military. This is apparent from the country’s defense budget for 2012, which was made public at the opening session of the People’s National Congress on Monday.The country’s defense spending for this year totals about 670 billion yuan (about 8.7 trillion yen), up 11.2 percent over the previous year and the second-largest figure after that of the United States.China has maintained double-digit growth in defense spending since 1989, with the exception of 2010 whe

March 9, 2012

Third term for Putin spells trouble ahead

He did it again. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won another presidential election. While the outcome was no surprise, neither was the controversy that greeted his victory. Despite Putin’s claim that he won “an open and honest fight,” the opposition has charged that the outcome reflects vote tampering and outright fraud. The growing antagonism of forces opposed to Putin will make the challenge of governing Russia ― already quite formidable ― even more difficult.The outcome of Sunday’s pres

March 9, 2012

[Masahiro Matsumura] Japan’s revenge of the mandarins

OSAKA ― Ever since the huge earthquake that hit Japan’s Pacific coast at Tohoku on March 11, 2011, the country’s mass media has obsessively focused on the magnitude of the physical damage and the loss of life. Repeated broadcasts of traumatic video images of the great tsunami and the damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have been seared into Japan’s collective memory.One year later, the media will be sure to intensify its reports and broadcasts along the same lines, enco

March 9, 2012

[Masahiro Matsumura] Japan’s revenge of the mandarins

[Bulent Arinc] Turkey: Nation of multiple faiths

ANKARA ― After decades of official neglect and mistrust, Turkey has taken several steps to ensure the rights of the country’s non-Muslim religious minorities, and thus to guarantee that the rule of law is applied equally for all Turkish citizens, regardless of individuals’ religion, ethnicity, or language.Turkey’s religious minorities include Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Assyrian, Kaldani, and other Christian denominations, as well as Jews, all of whom are integral parts of Turkish society. As part

March 8, 2012

[Bulent Arinc] Turkey: Nation of multiple faiths

Is the Korean language really an orphan?

Gnothi Seauton ― In Greek, these words mean “know thyself.” Such was the inscription at the ancient Temple of Apollo, where people would visit the sacred Oracle. Moving on to present-day Korea, the Korean people indeed “know themselves.” Korea has a strong sense of national identity and pride, with the largely homogeneous Korean people being in no doubt with regard to their origins from Mongolian tribes and seen with the people’s determination to forge ahead for a better tomorrow and a general s

March 8, 2012

U.S. food shipments to get N. Korea back to the table

Credit the Obama administration with the patient pursuit of negotiations toward dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program. Once again it may all come to a frustrating impasse.Still, North Korea did announce Wednesday it would allow international inspectors into its Yongbyon nuclear complex and suspend nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment in anticipation of talks.The New York Times reports the latest round of contacts began last July with the U.S. offering 265,000 tons of food to get the

March 8, 2012