[Jeffrey Robertson] Continuity in South Korean foreign policy

South Korea is now in a caretaker period – an extended caretaker period during which foreign policy will enter a period stasis and uncertainty. Analysts of South Korean foreign policy are awaiting the Constitutional Court’s decision and a subsequent election. Even after the installation of a new administration, it will take weeks before knowledge emerges regarding which existing programs will be shelved and which new initiatives will be launched. Now more than ever, it is time think about the la

Dec. 14, 2016

Strong democracy will survive impeachment

President Park Geun-hye was impeached and all of her powers suspended Friday by the South Korean parliament in an overwhelming 234-56 vote. The vote came against a background of demonstrations in the streets by an estimated more than 2 million protesters, a popularity rating for Park that had hit a low of 4 percent and a poll that indicated that 8 in 10 South Koreans were ready to see her go. The basic cause of their discontent with her as president turned on extensive evidence of crony capitali

Dec. 14, 2016

[Noah Feldman] How US could retaliate for Russian intervention

If Russia really tried to throw the US election to Donald Trump, what then? Did the hacking violate international law? And if so, what can the US do to retaliate? The short answer is that trying to change the outcome of another country’s election does violate a well-recognized principle of international law, and the US would be legally justified in taking “proportionate countermeasures.” But, in a painful twist, the best precedent comes from a 1986 case the US lost and never accepted.There are e

Dec. 14, 2016

[Andrew Sheng] The year of lost identity

There is a common thread running through Brexit, Trump and this week’s Italian referendum – not a populist revolt, but a question of identity. In a world full of uncertainties, which threaten our jobs, our future and sense of security, we go back to very basic questions – who am I? What do I really care about? How do I cope with the uncertain future? This insecurity in an age of prosperity results in localism and anti-globalization that many elites who benefited from globalization have not quite

Dec. 13, 2016

[Markos Kounalakis] Where will Trump venture for first state visit?

Barbara Streisand and Lena Dunham may be some of the higher profile “Trumpfugees” leaving the country and heading to Justin Trudeau’s Canada. What is less certain is if President Donald Trump will make Ottawa his first foreign port of call -- a long-standing presidential and foreign policy tradition.Postelection, Trudeau quickly called to congratulate Trump on his victory and the Canadian tweeted, “(W)e agreed to meet soon to keep building the Canada-US relationship.”Trump may want to use the hi

Dec. 13, 2016

[Noah Smith] Economists pretend they don’t pick winners and losers

Economics has always had to grapple with questions of moral philosophy. Unlike most natural sciences, econ deals directly with issues of government and social policy. Should we raise the minimum wage? Should we have universal health care? Is it OK to take money away from the rich and give it to the poor? The answers to these questions rely not just on facts and numbers, but on moral judgments and on your point of view.For example, suppose the US government is considering opening up trade with a

Dec. 13, 2016

[Danny Quah & Kishore Mahbubani] The Geopolitics of populism

The big question in Asian countries right now is what lesson to take from Donald Trump’s victory in the United States’ presidential election, and from the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum, in which British voters opted to leave the European Union. Unfortunately, the focus is not where it should be: geopolitical change.Instead, for the most part, economic narratives have prevailed: globalization, while improving overall wellbeing, also dislocates workers and industries, and generates greater in

Dec. 12, 2016

South Korea’s susceptibility to scandal

The impeachment of South Korean leader Park Geun-hye should herald the end of a painful and drawn-out political scandal. As they move forward, Koreans should be thinking about how to avoid another one.With Friday’s 234-56 vote in the National Assembly, Park’s powers as president have been suspended. For weeks, she tried to fend off public anger over influence-peddling allegations involving her private confidante Choi Soon-sil. Park admitted sharing speeches and other information with Choi; prose

Dec. 12, 2016

[Dick Meyer] Breaking: Trump will commission himself, male cabinet members, as army generals

This column was written as satire. --Ed. President-elect Donald J. Trump announced today that his first official action after being sworn in will be to use his authority as commander-in-chief to commission himself to be a general in the US Army, along with all male members of his Cabinet.Trump said he would be commissioned as a five-star general, the US Army’s highest rank. The Cabinet members will be appointed three-star generals. They will be required to wear uniforms at all times, though the

Dec. 12, 2016

[Megan McArdle] So, what do your parents do? And your great-grandparents?

Income mobility is a problem for everyone. Most people, in most countries, dream of a world where birth does not limit your status in society. No country has achieved this happy end, though some of them do better than others. Income mobility statistics are created, worried over, analyzed for some sign of possible cures. A new paper out of Sweden suggests that we should perhaps be worrying even more than we do, and that the cures may be harder to come by than we thought.　Most income mobility rese

Dec. 11, 2016

[Joshua J. Whitfield] We must be vigilant against the resurgence of banal evil

“Why not join the S.S.? And he had replied, Why not? That was how it happened, and that was about all there was to it.”These are the most haunting few sentences of the whole book, the controversial book by Hannah Arendt, “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” detailing the career of Adolf Eichmann, bureaucratic manager of the Holocaust. It is a book seeking out the how, if not the why, of such historic horror.Subtitled “A Report on the Banality of Evil,” Arendt found that many Nazis, such as Eichmann, were “n

Dec. 11, 2016

[Ann McFeatters] Who cares about briefings? Trump wants the money

The half of America that has not been bamboozled by Donald Trump’s promises to pull miracles out of his orange bouffant are puzzled by his refusal to attend national security briefings.You’d think a 70-year-old man without government experience or knowledge of world affairs would be intrigued to learn the nation’s secrets and the rationales for its foreign policy decisions.Soon, after all, President-elect Trump will be responsible for continuing those decisions or revoking them.But instead of st

Dec. 11, 2016

[Richard Cherwitz] Trump must loudly, persistently denounce hatred

I am a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, one of America’s major research institutions. My field of study is rhetoric, a discipline dating back to ancient Greece that studies persuasion. In particular I am interested in the impact of one’s language on audiences, regardless of the intent of the discourse.　Let me be upfront: I did not vote for Donald Trump and do not support many of things he said during the campaign. Nevertheless, I accept the legitimacy of his election and hold in h

Dec. 9, 2016