[David Fickling] Tall fences make bad neighbors out of Japan and Korea

To outsiders, it may seem like the deepening rift between Japan and South Korea has blown up out of a clear blue sky.For all the wrangling over the legacy of Japan’s 35-year colonization of the Korean Peninsula, which ended in 1945, there’s far more on paper to join than to separate them. Both are Northeast Asian democracies that have close military and economic ties to the US; potent exports of electronics, cars and cultural products; and a love of seafood and beef.After decades whe

July 15, 2019

[James Stavridis] The path forward with North Korea: ‘Denuclearization lite’

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been increasing signs that the Trump administration -- and particularly the president himself -- is moderating its position on North Korea’s stockpile of nuclear weapons. Gone are the adamant statements that the US will only accept complete, immediate and irreversible denuclearization. Instead, we’ve seen a symbolic but historic meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone, more flattering rhetoric about the North Korean di

July 15, 2019

[Markos Kounalakis] As British envoy just learned, loose lips sink diplomats

If the truth can set you free, then the British ambassador to Washington is now free as a bird. Unfortunately for him, he will no longer be soaring over America’s capital or hovering anywhere near the White House. In fact, the president made sure this British goose got cooked.Discretion is a key component of diplomacy, and Ambassador Kim Darroch was publicly discreet to a fault. But his private, privileged and personal observations -- reserved for his ministry and his masters -- now seem i

July 14, 2019

[David Ignatius] Democrats, Trump is on a roll

The agonizing fact for Democrats this summer is that US President Donald Trump appears to be gaining ground on domestic and foreign policy, while his potential challengers are quarreling and mostly spinning their wheels. Trump is taunting allies and defying Congress -- and seemingly getting away with it. He isn’t just rewriting the political rulebook, he’s tossing it aside. And the painful fact is that the Democrats haven’t figured out a way to stop his forward momentum, even t

July 14, 2019

[Elizabeth Drew] Could the Democrats blow it?

The unprecedentedly large number of candidates -- 25 at last count -- for the Democratic nomination to take on US President Donald Trump in 2020 has led to an awkward opening to the contest. The number of contenders will drop as the qualifications for participating in party debates tighten (especially in September) and some run out of money. Some know they have no real chance at winning, but hope that becoming better known might land them a cabinet post, more lucrative book deals, or larger spea

July 11, 2019

[David Ignatius] Why not get tough on Iran?

Democratic candidates for president should get smart about America’s confrontation with Iran: Rather than seek only to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, they should also endorse a broader, new negotiation that addresses Iran’s meddling in the region and removes sanctions against Tehran.The goal should be “JCPOA 2.0, Plus,” argues Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. That’s a reference to the acronym for the 2015 accord, k

July 11, 2019

[Mac Margolis] Latin America and free trade score a win

Argentina’s foreign minister fought back tears. President Maurico Macri called it “the most important agreement ever signed in our history.” Latin America’s biggest economy would soon be “reborn,” predicted a top aide to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who likewise heralded the “great day.”The June 28 deal between the European Union and Mercosur was a breakthrough. Who knew that even as China and the US played chicken with international trade,

July 10, 2019

[J. Bradford DeLong] Is plutocracy really the problem?

Why did the policy response to the Great Recession only partly reflect the lessons learned from the Great Depression? Until recently, the smart money was on the answers given by the Financial Times commentator Martin Wolf and my Berkeley colleague Barry Eichengreen. Each has argued that while enough was remembered to prevent the 1929-size shock of 2008 from producing another Great Depression, many lessons were plowed under by a rightward ideological shift in the years following the crisis. Since

July 10, 2019

[Lee Jae-min] Checks and balances key to ‘prosecution-police’ debate

Should police be permitted to terminate a criminal investigation on their own? This question is at the core of a long-standing debate between the prosecution and police over the adjustment of investigative power. There are many other issues, but this one has become very symbolic. The prosecution opposes it, while the police treat it as the lynchpin of the whole debate. National Assembly deliberation this fall will finalize the adjustment. As expected, it was also a hot topic at the confirmation

July 9, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Why do we need common sense?

When a society lacks common sense, absurd and irrational things can happen and, as a result, chaos and social disruption will prevail. What, then, is common sense? Common sense is widely known as “good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.” If so, we need to ask ourselves, “Do we have good sense and sound judgment? Are we practical?” Unfortunately, the answer is “No.” Oftentimes, Koreans seem to have neither good sense nor sound judgment not only in d

July 9, 2019

[Ivo Daalder] Real threat to liberalism is US’ unwillingness to defend it

“The liberal idea has become obsolete,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Financial Times in an eye-opening interview. It would be easy to dismiss this declaration of liberalism’s demise, considering the messenger.That would be a mistake. Putin has spent the better part of two decades centralizing his own power at home while actively undermining liberal institutions abroad. But it is the failure of the United States and its allies to adequately defend liberalism that is

July 8, 2019

[Trudy Rubin] Despite DMZ photo op with Kim Jong-un, Trump has made no progress on eliminating Korean nukes

We all know how much President Donald Trump loves photo ops with strongmen. The latest was his high drama pose with Kim Jong-un, on the northern side of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, late last month.Announced by tweet and improvised at the last minute, this move was another instance of Trump’s overtures to autocrats and dictators -- on grounds that warm relationships will morph into great political deals.If Trump’s embrace of Kim -- “we fell in love,&rdq

July 8, 2019

[Warren Fernandez] Forging community ties, one friendly gesture at a time

Singapore is well known for its Third to First World economic transformation, its efficient, effective Government, as well as for being a very fine, clean and green city.The annual Shangri-La Dialogue, when defence chiefs from many countries gather on the island to thrash out the geopolitical issues of the day, is also well established.Now, thanks to Singapore's President Halimah Yacob, the Republic might also come to be recognised for its painstaking efforts over the years to foster a society w

July 8, 2019

[Andrew Sheng] After the protests, what next? A debate on liberalism

The old order is broken. No less than Russian President Putin has declared the neoliberal order “obsolete.” We now have to think the unthinkable -- every dream has turned into a nightmare -- the land of the free no longer seems to welcome anyone, while the freest economy in the world is under siege by massive protests.What is the New Order? How do we deal with the myriad problems of inequality, climate change, technological disruption to jobs, de-globalization and fragmentation of so

July 7, 2019

[Nisha Gopalan] If Masayoshi Son won’t invest in Japan, why should you?

Softbank Group’s Vision Fund has invested its $100 billion cash pile in 75 unicorns around the world. Not a single one is from Japan, its own backyard.That may be because the pickings are slim: While the US has 179 unicorns (private startups valued over $1 billion), China 93 and India 18, Japan has just two, according to CB Insights. How can a country that pioneered the Walkman and android robots fail to produce more valuable startups? The explanation may be somewhat arcane, but helps get

July 7, 2019

[Charles A. Kupchan, Sinan Ulgen] US still needed in Syria

 While the world frets about a possible conflict between the United States and Iran, the bloodshed in Syria is escalating once again. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has intensified its onslaught against the remaining opposition stronghold in Idlib province, which is home to some 3 million people, including many who have been internally displaced. To avoid a new humanitarian nightmare and another mass exodus of refugees, the US must renew its peacemaking efforts.Since a US-back

July 4, 2019

[Lionel Laurent] Trump’s tariff barrage forces EU into a corner

Is there any method to Donald Trump’s madness on trade?Politicians and investors are all struggling to make sense of the US president’s tendency to stop, go and reverse course in his dealings with China and Europe. Financial traders went to sleep Monday basking in the glow of a trade truce with Beijing. They woke up Tuesday to news that the Americans had expanded a list of European products that may be whacked by tariffs (under the guise of the long-running state subsidy dispute betw

July 4, 2019

[David Ignatius] Trump successfully played a hunch with Kim. Now what?

In dealing with North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un, President Trump should remember that he is a snake handler, not a snake charmer. (The same advice applies to Kim, but we’ll leave that to pundits in Pyongyang.)The baseline: Kim is a modernizing autocrat who believes his survival will be enhanced by the economic development he wants, in addition to the nuclear weapons he has. If he has decided to resume negotiations, it’s to remove sanctions, put his economy in overdrive and,

July 3, 2019