The Korea Herald

[Jonathan Weil] What Europe’s leaders mean when their mouths move

The error most Americans make when trying to understand the European debt crisis is this: They fail to realize that the euro isn’t just a doomed currency, but a language unto itself. Too often the great mishaps of our era can be ascribed to a failure to communicate ― from the lip-synching scandal th

Oct. 3, 2011

[Rachel Marsden] Obama’s international leadership outsourcing

To gauge President Obama’s lack of direct involvement on the international stage, you only have to look at the popularity polls in Europe, where his approval numbers still soar at around 75 percent. In Europe, leaders often become better liked as their visibility, leadership and influence decrease.

Oct. 3, 2011

[Yuriko Koike] A wayward China in Africa

TOKYO ― As Libya’s National Transitional Council attempts to establish a functioning government for a newly liberated country, the truth about what went on under Col. Muammar el-Gadhafi’s regime is starting to come to light. Various treasures have been unearthed from Tripoli mansions that were hasti

Oct. 3, 2011

[Yuriko Koike] A wayward China in Africa

[William Pesek] China as J.P. Morgan might have to save world

China and the U.S. finally found something to agree on: Europe is doomed and might take the world’s two biggest economies down with it. Neither officials in Beijing nor Washington are actually using the “D word.” They don’t need to, not with Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank governor, talking mat

Oct. 2, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] Iran’s support of Syria backfiring

As the brutal Syrian uprising stumbles into its seventh month, Iran’s leaders are spinning and darting like a wobbly top. They realize that President Bashar al-Assad’s continuing slaughter of his own people is not only costing thousands of innocent Syrian lives, but also eviscerating Iran’s reputati

Oct. 2, 2011

[Joel Brinkley] Iran’s support of Syria backfiring

Obama’s unwise campaign against Palestinian statehood

President Obama is staging an unwarranted diplomatic battle against the Palestinian attempt at statehood recognition through U.N. membership.In his speech to the United Nations on Sept. 21, Obama opposed the Palestinian bid for membership without giving any good reason.“Peace will not come through s

Oct. 2, 2011

Mahmoud Abbas: A humble moment in history

Global Viewpoint: Mr. President, how did you feel at the moment you stood before the General Assembly? At that historic moment as you stood there, how did you feel personally?Mahmoud Abbas: I felt that we are really witnessing an historic event, that we are before a just and right demand, namely tha

Oct. 2, 2011

Mahmoud Abbas: A humble moment in history

[Park Sang-seek] U.N. International Day of Peace: How to build peace?

No person and state on earth opposes peace, but humanity has never enjoyed permanent peace since it appeared on the globe. Scholars all over the world have never ceased to write on war and peace. All religions have been constantly preaching peace, and great world political leaders have vowed to keep

Oct. 2, 2011

[Park Sang-seek] U.N. International Day of Peace: How to build peace?

[Michael Boskin] Time running out for Europe to choose on recovery

PALO ALTO ― Europe is suffering from simultaneous sovereign-debt, banking, and currency crises. Severe economic distress and political pressure are buffeting relationships among citizens, sovereign states, and supranational institutions such as the European Central Bank. Calls are rampant for surren

Sept. 30, 2011

[David Ignatius] Caution fills Obama’s playbook

WASHINGTON ― It was painful to watch President Obama recently at the United Nations, backing away from the goal of Palestinian statehood he had championed when he took office. The best that could be said was that it was a bit of foreign-policy realism, acknowledging the political and strategic fact

Sept. 30, 2011

[David Ignatius] Caution fills Obama’s playbook

Time for Ozawa to tell his side of the story

The guilty ruling handed down to three former aides to Democratic Party of Japan strongman Ichiro Ozawa over political funding irregularities clearly establishes their criminal responsibility by the judiciary. Given this, Ozawa has an extremely heavy responsibility to assume as a politician over the

Sept. 30, 2011

Transparent gains

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s first official trip to the United States achieved something more than the obligatory ceremonial visit of a new president to a key ally and a reaffirmation of the historical, geopolitical and economic ties. Although there was no one-on-one meeting between him

Sept. 30, 2011

[Zhou Hong] World would benefit from a longer-lasting global order

One of the amazing new phenomena of the rapidly changing past few decades is the change in power configuration of today’s world compared to 20-30 years ago. The fall of the Berlin Wall not only ended the Cold War, but also, or even more significantly, combined the “two world markets” into one.

Sept. 30, 2011

[Zhou Hong] World would benefit from a longer-lasting global order

The storm over disaster aid in the United States

Some 13 percent of Americans approve of how Congress is doing its job, while 83 percent disapprove. Nearly 22 percent of Americans say the country is on the right track; 72 percent say no, the country is on the wrong track.If you were a member of Congress, these averages of recent survey results fro

Sept. 29, 2011

[Robert Shiller] Great debt scare in U.S., Europe

NEW HAVEN ― It might not seem that Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and growing concern about the United States’ debt position should shake basic economic confidence. But it apparently has. And loss of confidence, by discouraging consumption and investment, can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, causing t

Sept. 29, 2011

[Robert Shiller] Great debt scare in U.S., Europe

[William Pesek] Korea battens down hatches

The threat of financial contagion isn’t always bad.Take South Korea, which is taking the hint from Europe’s fast-worsening sovereign debt crisis. It’s devising plans to cut its fiscal deficit next year and loudly publicizing the effort ― just in case credit-rating agencies get any ideas about downgr

Sept. 29, 2011

[Sarah Chayes] Government by crime syndicate in Afghanistan

The remarkable public confrontation between the Gandhi-like ascetic Anna Hazare and the government of India ― which came to a triumphant end last month with a glass of orange juice and a government promise to create a strong, independent anti-corruption agency ― is the latest manifestation of a worl

Sept. 29, 2011

Flirting with justice

After his first argument before Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, one prominent Southern lawyer was certain the Supreme Court would rule in his favor ― because, he said, she was “flirting” with him. The comment speaks volumes about the speaker, but it also says something about the person who weaved her w

Sept. 29, 2011

[Ban Ki-moon] A global agenda for seven billion

NEW YORK ― Late next month, a child will be born ― the 7 billionth citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born. We do know that the baby will enter a world of vast and unpredictable change ― environmental, economic, geopolitical, technological and demo

Sept. 29, 2011

[Ban Ki-moon] A global agenda for seven billion

[Susan Crawford] Phone, Web clampdowns in crises intolerable

Can U.S. citizens count on using the Internet and cell-phone networks to communicate in high-stress situations? The Federal Communications Commission is about to examine that question. Public interest and the law both require that channels stay open. At issue is the termination of cell-phone service

Sept. 28, 2011