[Leonid Bershidsky] Moving Franco’s grave doesn’t make him any less of monster

The Spanish government on Thursday exhumed the remains of the dictator Francisco Franco, who died in 1975, from a mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen near Madrid and took them to a city cemetery where Franco’s wife is buried. It may give Spain’s caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is fighting for re-election, a boost in the polls, but it won’t really put anything right.Franco’s old resting place was probably the most ostentatious of any 20th century tyrant&rsquo

Oct. 28, 2019

[Jeffrey Frankel] a weaponized dollar could backfire

The language of international monetary policy has turned militaristic. The phrase “currency war” has now been popular for a decade, and the United States government’s more recent “weaponization” of the dollar is generating controversy. But ironically, a martial approach could end up threatening the US currency’s global dominance.This is a good time to gauge the relative strengths of the dollar and rival international currencies (meaning currencies that are use

Oct. 27, 2019

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Why rich cities rebel

Three of the world’s more affluent cities have erupted in protests and unrest this year. Paris has faced waves of protests and rioting since November 2018, soon after French President Emmanuel Macron raised fuel taxes. Hong Kong has been in upheaval since March, after Chief Executive Carrie Lam proposed a law to allow extradition to the Chinese mainland. And Santiago exploded in rioting this month after President Sebastian Pinera ordered an increase in metro prices. Each protest has its di

Oct. 24, 2019

[Kim Myong-sik] Growing concern over faltering Korea-US alliance

Concerns are growing here over the future of the seven-decade-old military alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States that is apparently weakening. Signs causing such concerns are abundant.Annual joint exercises of the allied forces, some involving trans-Pacific deployment of troops from the continental US to any part of the Korean Peninsula, have been reduced in scale and duration or outright cancelled. US President Trump called them “provocative” and “waste

Oct. 23, 2019

[Arvind Subramanian] The battle of fading hegemons

Almost a decade ago, China bulls like Martin Jacques and I predicted the rise of the People’s Republic at the expense of a declining United States. Today, with the two superpowers unabashedly jostling for hegemony -- their trade war being just one sign of this -- it is time for a fresh assessment.　It is tempting to view the US-China rivalry as just another superpower transition in a long line going back to the classical shift of power from Athens to Sparta. But this case is different.Tradi

Oct. 23, 2019

[Robert J. Fouser] After the Cho Kuk show

The Cho Kuk show took an unexpected turn after he resigned as Minister of Justice on Oct. 14. During Cho’s 35 days in office, mass demonstrations in favor and against him become common. Supporters gathered in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul’s Seocho-dong and opponents gathered across the city in Gwanghwamun. Supporters demanded reforms in how the prosecution does business, whereas opponents demanded his resignation and called for the impeachment of President M

Oct. 22, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Watching ‘Battleship’ in 2019

Recently, I watched the 2012 Hollywood science fiction action film “Battleship,” which was about an alien invasion and the US Navy’s desperate attempts to stop it. While watching the film, two things caught my attention: The movie was set in Honolulu and it depicted friendship between the US and Japan. Then, it occurred to me that perhaps “Battleship” could be a metaphoric reenactment of the Pearl Harbor surprise attack by Japan in 1941, which ignited the Pacific Wa

Oct. 22, 2019

[Therese Raphael] Johnson has campaign slogan ready

There was very nearly a bedtime Brexit tale that went something like this: And so, finally, the porridge was just right, Parliament ate up Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and then, satisfied, went to bed. The end.Of course, lawmakers didn’t eat up and this interminable story isn’t over. Saturday’s parliamentary session instead served up another helping of thin gruel to those British voters who just want the whole thing resolved. Rather than the prime minister getting a vote o

Oct. 21, 2019

[Elizabeth Drew] Will Trump be removed from office?

For the first time, reasonable people in the United States have begun to speculate that President Donald Trump could be convicted by the Senate and thus removed from office. The likelihood is still low, but Trump’s position is weakening, and opinion polls are steadily moving against him. It is widely assumed that the House of Representatives will vote to impeach him, sending the question of his presidency to the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed and Republicans hold a majority.Trum

Oct. 21, 2019

[Shang-Jin Wei] Anti-globalization bias and public policy

Opponents of globalization constantly point to the uneven impact of open trade. Although trade liberalization can make the overall economic pie bigger, not everyone gets a larger slice, and many may receive a much smaller piece than before because of competition from foreign-made products. Such concerns help to explain why many blue-collar American workers voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election, and why French farmers and workers often take part in anti-globalization demonst

Oct. 20, 2019

[Min Gab-ryong] Korean police lead in world peace, security through ‘K-Cop Wave’

The Korean National Police Agency hosts the International Police Summit Seoul, 2019 with police chiefs from 30 countries around the world on the margins of the 74th celebration of Police Day. The summit will discuss “Global Partnership for Smart Policing” on the advent of the “fourth industrial revolution.” The event is possible owing to Korean police efforts to contribute to international policing cooperation.The Korean police have been actively pursuing the “K-Cop

Oct. 17, 2019

[Noah Smith] Economics Nobel for three pragmatic poverty-fighters

This year’s economics Nobel prize went to three worthy economists: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Kremer of Harvard University. The prize, awarded “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty,” shows several important ways that the economics discipline is changing. A popular conception of economists is that they’re the high priests of the free market, downplaying the role of government and givin

Oct. 16, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] We, too, can inadvertently become terrorists

Today we live in a violent world. Every day, war and terrorism are exterminating human lives somewhere on this planet. In advanced countries, violence is not tolerated, and is strictly prohibited by law. In many underdeveloped countries, however, violence is so rampant and omnipresent that people have no other choice than to live with it. Violence takes many forms. Some forms of violence are visible and obvious, and others are invisible, subtle, or inconspicuous. Experts say there are four

Oct. 15, 2019

[Shuli Ren] Elliott and Blackstone enter hostile territory in Japan

A small $1.5 billion company is attracting the biggest movers in finance in what’s shaping up as the first high-profile foreign hostile takeover in Japan. If successful, it could wake up the sleepy $228 billion market of publicly listed real-estate companies.　The attention is on Unizo Holdings, until recently an obscure developer and hotel operator. The company has a big chunk of its office rental business, which accounts for about 90 percent of operating income, in Tokyo, where the vacanc

Oct. 15, 2019

[Noah Smith] Five unpopular policies the US should adopt

Not every good policy is going to be popular. Sometimes either the public, activists or the commentariat -- or all three -- just get something wrong. This can happen for ideological reasons, or simply because of a lack of information. I’m more optimistic than most pundits, in that I think the public usually gets at least the outlines broadly right. But there are a few issues where the tide of opinion simply seems to be against me. Here are a few:No. 1. The Trans-Pacific PartnershipThe TPP

Oct. 14, 2019

[Bennet Ramberg] Whither nuclear-arms control?

Is nuclear-arms control unraveling? The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty has collapsed, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is teetering, and North Korea has continued to expand its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal. Worse, it is unclear whether the United States will stick with the New START Treaty when it expires in 2021. That agreement limits (at 3,000) the number of strategic weapons Russia and the US have pointed at each other.Fortunately, history offers some solace. During and afte

Oct. 13, 2019

[Ramesh Ponnuru] Bad legal arguments against impeachment

Once again, Alan Dershowitz, a former Harvard Law School professor, is mounting a defense of US President Donald Trump against the threat of impeachment.In the past, Dershowitz has been willing to get creative in his legal arguments. After Trump said that he would appeal any impeachment attempt to the Supreme Court, Dershowitz claimed that it was “certainly possible” that the court would stop the Senate from holding a trial. Former Justice David Souter had, he explained, once written

Oct. 13, 2019