[Nicholas Goldberg] Can US strike a balance between isolationism and policing the world?

Americans are tired of war. We just got out of a 20-year fiasco in Afghanistan with little to show for it except the Taliban reinstated, burqa sales up and the country plunged into turmoil. Before that, the seven-year-long war in Iraq didn’t make Americans safer, nor did it make that country a thriving democracy or uncover weapons of mass destruction. Trillions of dollars later and thousands of lives gone, many Americans are feeling skeptical about foreign entanglements and urging a retr

Jan. 3, 2022

[Robert Pearl] Endemic COVID-19 should be cause for celebration, not consternation

Most leading immunologists predict COVID-19 will someday become an endemic, a persistent but manageable threat on par with seasonal flu, conceivably by the end of 2022. That would constitute quite the turnaround from today. All things considered, the possibility of COVID-19 becoming endemic (just another American annoyance) should be cause for great celebration. So, why doesn’t the pending transition from pandemic to endemic feel like great news? Part of the answer involves the news m

Jan. 3, 2022

[Serendipity] Humility, a pandemic lesson

The snow made me do it. After much vacillation over whether to visit the US side of my family over Christmas or to stay in Seoul, I had finally resigned myself to spending the holidays at home. I had booked my flights months in advance, in hopes that the pandemic situation would improve with time. After all, vaccines that can protect against the virus that causes COVID-19, or at least lessen the severity of an infection, were now widely available. We had also learned over more than a year of

Dec. 31, 2021

[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea pulls through, again

The year 2021 began with great hope that vaccines would end the COVID-19 pandemic; it ends in fear as the omicron variant spreads at a torrid pace. As the world welcomes 2022, leaders are running short of political capital to rally weary citizens to cooperate with burdensome public health measures. Amid the dashed hopes of 2021, South Korea pulled through again, much as it did in 2020. The nation did far better than most other advanced democracies in limiting the impact of the pandemic on socie

Dec. 31, 2021

[Kim Myong-sik] Presidential pardon to forgive own political vendetta

If I am asked to design a New Year calendar, I would draw three swans floating on a lake to depict the figures 2-0-2-2. A bright sun rising from the horizon shall be inserted between the first two birds to mark zero. This picture I hope could symbolize peace and stability that we are yearning for in the coming year after the extremely weary time of the coronavirus pandemic. Even before the virus struck this country in early 2020, South Korean politics had remained volatile amid worsening parti

Dec. 30, 2021

[Dave Anderson] Truth is that US citizens are not polarized

There are two problems with the conventional wisdom about polarization in American society. The first is that it mistakes widespread conflict with one master battle between conservatives and liberals. The second is that it overlooks a large percentage of Americans who do not identify with either the Democrats or the Republicans. The result of these two mistakes is the ongoing, misleading narrative that the people of the United States are engaged in a red vs. blue war. Consider the first mistak

Dec. 30, 2021

[Ana Palacio] Failures of 2021 call for honest introspection

The end of a year invites reflection on the events and trends that have shaped it. In 2021, they include the COVID-19 pandemic, recently reinvigorated by the omicron variant; the steady march of climate change, which has intensified pressure to reach net-zero emissions; and geopolitical tensions, especially the great-power rivalry between the US and China. On all of these fronts, 2021 was a year of deterioration.　 As difficult as 2020 was, it concluded with grounds for hope. Effective COVID-19

Dec. 29, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] Looking back on 2021, a year full of turbulence

Unlike any other, the year 2021 was an especially turbulent one worldwide. In fact, together with 2020 it was one of the worst years in memory due to the continuing surge of COVID-19. To make matters worse, variants of the coronavirus, namely delta and omicron, spread rapidly, devastating the slowly recuperating world. Some suffered the loss of family members or a job. Others had to endure the shutdown of a business or bankruptcy. People expected the pandemic would end in 2021. To our disappoi

Dec. 29, 2021

[Takatoshi Ito] Does Japan vindicate Modern Monetary Theory?

Public debt has soared since the 2008 financial crisis, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the International Monetary Fund, the ratio of public debt to GDP in advanced economies increased from around 70 percent in 2007 to 124 percent in 2020. But the fear that rising public debt will fuel future financial crises has been subdued, partly because government bond yields have been so low for so long. Although yields started falling much earlier, in the 1990s, they were kept l

Dec. 28, 2021

[Tyler Cowen] We can’t get back to normal yet

As omicron cases rise rapidly, there are urgent questions about how aggressively we should respond. At one extreme are reactions like that of the Netherlands, which has moved into full lockdown mode to blunt the variant’s spread. Another possibility is simply to not do very much, whether out of pandemic fatigue or uncertainty over the best approach. But the sudden surge in cases has given fresh impetus to those who believe the time has come to normalize COVID, treating it much as we would

Dec. 28, 2021

[Charles A. Kupchan] A diplomatic way out in Ukraine

During his annual press conference on Dec. 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin railed against NATO enlargement. “How would the US react if we delivered rockets near their borders with Canada or Mexico?” he pointedly asked. Putin’s increasingly combative rhetoric, coupled with Russia’s huge troop buildup on its border with Ukraine, suggests that the Kremlin is readying an invasion to pull the country back into Russia’s sphere of influence and prevent its accession

Dec. 27, 2021

[Lee Kyong-hee] Sending prayer for care from cradle to grave

A conversation with Archbishop Simon Kim Soung-soo of the Anglican Church is heartwarming and inspirational. In the pro-democracy struggle decades ago, he was a courageous advocate. Now, he is a voice for people with developmental disabilities. The nonagenarian archbishop can be found on the Incheon island Ganghwado, which hugs the border separating North and South Korea. There, he assists 50 “friends” at Urimaul, or Our Village, a workplace aimed at ensuring the comfort and secu

Dec. 23, 2021

[Becky Faith] The danger of digitalizing aid

BRIGHTON -- Digital systems are critical to development and humanitarian activities, but they can expose some of the world’s most vulnerable communities to unforeseen risks. Recent examples from Afghanistan highlight these dangers. In September, it was reported that the UK Ministry of Defence had been involved in two separate data breaches, potentially compromising the safety of participants in the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy program, which is intended to protect people who h

Dec. 22, 2021

[Eli Lake] Who’s appeasing Putin now

On the campaign trail in 2020, then candidate Joe Biden posed as hawk on Russia. In response to reports (later discredited) that then President Donald Trump had ignored intelligence suggesting Russia had paid for bounties on US forces in Afghanistan, Biden declared that Trump’s “entire presidency has been a gift to Putin.” Biden’s attitude was partly explained by his party’s obsession with the (also discredited) theory that Trump conspired with Russia to win the 20

Dec. 22, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] Suppose John F. Kennedy were our next president

Many Koreans often lament that they have not had great leaders with legacies such as John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, or Abraham Lincoln: If South Korea were lucky enough to have had such famous leaders, she would surely have been a more advanced and admirable country. Facing the Presidential Election Day in March 2022, many Koreans wish to have a great leader comparable to the above-mentioned political leaders. Thus, they wonder; “What would happen if one of those great

Dec. 22, 2021

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Avoiding the worst in Ukraine and Taiwan

Two dangerous flashpoints, in Europe and Asia, could bring the United States, Russia and China into open conflict. The crises over Ukraine and Taiwan can be resolved, but all parties must respect the others’ legitimate security interests. Acknowledging those interests objectively will provide the basis for a lasting de-escalation of tensions. Consider Ukraine. Although it undoubtedly has the right to sovereignty and safety from a Russian invasion, it does not have the right to undermine R

Dec. 21, 2021

[Luigi Zingales] Burying the laissez-faire zombie

“The return of the state” is a phrase seemingly on almost everyone’s lips nowadays. Given the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, the argument goes, it is governments, not markets, that should be responsible for allocating resources. The neoliberal revolution started by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher has apparently run its course. New Deal-style state intervention is back. But this opposition of state and market is misleading, and it poses

Dec. 21, 2021

[Andrew Sheng] We need a global summit on inequality

Income and wealth inequality is unjust, and yet the world continues to tolerate rising injustices, the most recent being inequalities in vaccine distribution. French political economist Thomas Piketty and his colleagues at the World Inequality Lab have just published the World Inequality Report 2022, a real goldmine in data and insights on global inequalities. I found at least three nuggets inside that are blindingly obvious. First, inequality is primarily a political issue. We can all do so

Dec. 20, 2021

[Michael Khodarkovsky] Russia is repeating same old pattern

This year marks the 300-year anniversary of Peter the Great’s declaration of himself as emperor and Russia as an empire. But it also marks another important date: 30 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the first is a cause for celebration, the second for regret. During his two decades in power, Putin has spared no effort dismantling Russia’s embryonic democracy and restoring Russia to its former glory. This is Putin&rsqu

Dec. 20, 2021