The Korea Herald

[Justin Fox] I hereby resolve ...

My main New Year’s resolution for 2017 is pretty much the same as always: Stop eating Christmas cookies, cut back on the drinking and get back to the gym. This resolve tends to stick for much of the year -- only during the next holiday season does everything invariably fall apart again. Maybe I should consider making this a pre-Thanksgiving resolution.I’ve had some other resolutions on my mind this week, though, and it struck me that they might be of wider applicability for a year that so many p

Jan. 3, 2017

[Stephen L. Carter] Here’s what’s going to happen in 2017

Earlier this week I reviewed my predictions for 2016, many of which came true and many of which -- particularly about politics -- did not. It’s time to try again. Here are a baker’s dozen of predictions for 2017, on a mix of serious subjects and light ones. I have appended a trio of resolutions, which, with the help of my loyal readers, I will do my best to keep. So, without further ado:　- The so-called new Cold War between the US and Russia will continue to heat up during the first year of Dona

Jan. 3, 2017

[Kim Seong-kon] A portrait of the artist as an old man

In “Dubliners,” James Joyce presents an assortment of timid, hesitant protagonists who try to flee from Dublin, and yet cannot leave because of different forces that pull them down. In this collection of short stories, Joyce’s protagonists are all frustrated, discontented people who desperately wish to escape from their homeland. Unfortunately, they are nothing but timorous, petty bourgeois who are too vulnerable to personal and social bondages to boldly cut loose and leave. It is only in his ne

Jan. 3, 2017

[Kim Seong-kon] A portrait of the artist as an old man

[Bloomberg] Leave the high seas to the fish

The high seas -- all that deep water beyond 200 nautical miles from a coastline -- are this planet’s last frontier. And like all previous frontiers, they’re ripe for plunder. But there may be a surprisingly simple solution to the scourge of overfishing on the high seas: a ban on commercial fishing in international waters.The proposition may sound radical, but it has the backing of scientists who have shown how much a ban could restore coastal fisheries and the global fishing industry. In fact, i

Jan. 3, 2017

[Robert J. Fouser] Restoring “good politics” in 2017

Every year, we toy with New Year’s resolutions only to fall back on established patterns. At the same time, we look back at past year and try to predict events in the new year, but the future rarely follows a script. Change, after all, is hard to see and even harder to predict. Talking a longer view helps us see trends with greater perspective, which gives us deeper insight into a possible future.In thinking about Korea’s future, the long view, both past and present, is more important than 2016

Jan. 3, 2017

[Robert J. Fouser] Restoring “good politics” in 2017

[Bloomberg] Obama’s stingy pardons

President Barack Obama granted 78 pardons earlier this month, doubling the total for his presidency -- and ensuring that it will not go down as the least forgiving in more than a century. Instead, it will probably end up as the second-least forgiving.It’s a strange legacy for a president who has spoken so eloquently about the need for a more fair and rational criminal-justice system. It’s also a missed opportunity to notch a small victory for another issue the president is passionate about: voti

Jan. 2, 2017

[Gina Barreca] Don’t let your great ideas get away

Here’s the one thing you need to do in 2017: You need to write everything down. Write down the great ideas you have in the middle of the night, the plots to novels, the blueprints for inventions, the obvious next steps for launching ourselves into fabulous careers and simultaneously solving the problems of the universe.　While most of these will not make sense in the morning, to have a record of them is both fascinating and hilarious.　And you never know: The 519th item might just contain precisel

Jan. 2, 2017

[Jay Ambrose] Obama finally gets tough with Russia

Despite sloppy reporting that repeatedly said otherwise, often accompanied by Page 1 headlines, Donald Trump never called for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails. He specifically said any hacking would not have occurred if the Obama administration had not been so weak, implying that a Trump administration would have been strong and would have prevented it.　He had a point. President Barack Obama has been wimpy on hacking and other misdeeds by Russians, and they have kept coming at us until fi

Jan. 2, 2017

[Jay Ambrose] Obama finally gets tough with Russia

[Jonathan Bernstein] Eight political scientists who will make sense of 2017

It’s time for everyone to stock up on experts to turn to for guidance. I’ll recommend several political scientists who write publicly -- bloggers, tweeters, columnists -- to help explain the political system in 2017.　Julia Azari blogs at Mischiefs of Faction and elsewhere and tweets about the presidency, parties and plenty of other topics. I’ve linked to her often in my Early Returns newsletter (you do subscribe, right?) and I highlight her here especially because of her work on presidential man

Jan. 2, 2017

[Faye Flam] Can you spot fake news? Don’t be so sure

One of the enduring mysteries of the fake-news epidemic is why it’s happening now, when it’s easier than ever for readers to fact-check stories with a few quick keystrokes. A Google search and a little common sense should be enough to cast doubt on stories that the Clintons are running a child sex ring from a pizza parlor, that Sharia law has been instituted in Florida or that CNN accidentally aired 30 minutes of pornography.　And yet, fake news was rampant in 2016. No, busloads of paid protester

Jan. 2, 2017

[Rex Huppke] Silly predictions for New Year

Greetings and welcome to Rex Huppke’s third annual Surefire Guaranteed-Or-Your-Money-Back New Year’s Predictions.　As most of you know, I was born with the gift of precognition. (I knew that was going to make you roll your eyes.)　Granted, my past prognostications have been described as “pitiful” and “laughably inaccurate,” but critics tend to get hung up on silly details like facts and truth and the unnecessary trappings of reality.　Was I wrong when I predicted that marijuana would be legalized n

Jan. 2, 2017

[Rex Huppke] Silly predictions for New Year

[Kim Yong-chan] The birth of a new public: place-based, instant, and networked

Over the last several weeks I visited Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul every Saturday almost like a regular church-goer, and met other fellow citizens to be part of a new type of human organization that I call a place-based, instant and networked public. This amazing human project has been conducted in response to the scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye. The majority of South Korean people with candles (real and digital) in their hands were united in demanding that President Park ste

Jan. 1, 2017

[Kim Yong-chan] The birth of a new public: place-based, instant, and networked

[David Ignatius] America is at its greatest when it‘s inclusive of all its citizens

For America, 2016 was a dark year. The country was still at war. Our election was a brutal grudge match that left us more polarized than ever. Our closest allies were rocked by terrorism and turmoil. Adversaries toyed with our politics. Even the basic facts about life and science seemed to be in dispute.However you voted, this was a year few would want to repeat. Now, as the calendar is about to turn, many of us look to the new year with a mix of hope and concern. If you’re like me, this holiday

Jan. 1, 2017

[Park Sang-seek] Korean democracy on trial

Many observers attribute the cause of the present political crisis in Korea to the clash between conservative and liberal forces. But the real cause of the crisis lies in the misuse and abuse of political authority, not to ideological conflict between the left and right. 　Therefore, the solution to the crisis should be looked for in the root cause of the former, not the latter, and this can be found not in a single individual, but in the entire political culture of Korea. The public authorities

Jan. 1, 2017

[Park Sang-seek] Korean democracy on trial

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Learning to Love a Multipolar World

American foreign policy is at a crossroads. The United States has been an expanding power since its start in 1789. It battled its way across North America in the 19th century and gained global dominance in the second half of the 20th. But now, facing China’s rise, India’s dynamism, Africa’s soaring populations and economic stirrings, Russia’s refusal to bend to its will, its own inability to control events in the Middle East, and Latin America’s determination to be free of its de facto hegemony,

Jan. 1, 2017

[Christopher Balding] A China-Watcher’s Guide to 2017

Each December, China’s leaders meet to lay out their economic agenda for the next year. And each December, China-watchers pore over their every word, much like Kremlinologists during the Cold War. It bears remembering that these pronouncements are rarely predictive, and that the best sources of insight on China‘s economy are usually found elsewhere. Here are a few key points to keep in mind next year.　Watch the data, not the New Year’s resolutions.　In 2015, China‘s leaders were touting plans for

Jan. 1, 2017

[Rachel Marsden] Anti-globalism movement faces state-sponsored backlash in 2017

How will history remember 2016? Two clear themes have emerged over the past year: nationalization (or de-globalization) and asymmetry. Brave individuals stared down an entire system and won with the support of the average citizen.　The cultural identities of Western nations had been eroding for years, as leaders failed to enforce national borders under the guise of tolerance. It was starting to feel as if an invisible hand was at work, mixing all of the elements and identities that make each coun

Dec. 30, 2016

[Rachel Marsden] Anti-globalism movement faces state-sponsored backlash in 2017

[Tan Dawn Wei] Farewell to the old world order

The year 2016 will be remembered for many things, not least of which for how the old world order got tossed out and a new world order was established. It will be remembered for Syria constantly hogging the headlines for bombardments, destruction and the death of thousands of civilians, while the world continued to go about its business.It will be remembered for how climate change fueled one of the longest-lasting, strongest hurricanes of its kind -- Hurricane Matthew that battered the United Sta

Dec. 30, 2016

A wonder of science and spines: If other paralyzed primates walk, will humans?

In the annals of breathtaking scientific advances, it’s hard to top this recent news headline: “Paralyzed Monkeys Can Walk Again With Wireless Brain-Spine Connection.”This is legit? Yes. How so? Scientists implant a chip in a monkey’s brain that sends wireless signals through a computer to electrodes in the lower back. The system stimulates a neural pathway that controls the muscles involved in walking.Voila, the paralyzed primate walks.The research, reported by a team of scientists at the Swiss

Dec. 29, 2016

[Noah Feldman] Trump‘s 180-degree turn on China policy

The US-China relationship is ending 2016 on its most ominous note in years. President-elect Donald Trump has questioned the one-China policy that has been the default American position and angered mainland China by taking a congratulatory call from Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen. China has reciprocated with barely veiled aggression, adding visible anti-aircraft systems to the artificial islands it has dredged out of the South China Sea and seizing an underwater American drone from under the no

Dec. 29, 2016