[Le Hong Hiep] Southeast Asia gets Trumped?

With his shocking victory in the US presidential election, Donald Trump has made history -- and made a lot of people very afraid. In fact, his rise threatens to incite a revolution that shakes the foundations not only of American politics, but also of global peace and prosperity. One region that is likely to start feeling tremors soon is Southeast Asia.Throughout his campaign, Trump espoused an “America first” worldview, emphasizing that he would follow through on US international commitments on

Nov. 17, 2016

Ditch the electoral college? Yes we can

After the second election in 16 years in which the winner of the national popular vote will be denied the presidency, talk has resurfaced about the shortcomings of the electoral college, the convoluted system by which our chief executive is actually chosen. It is the product of an 18th century compromise forged over issues that no longer apply and resting on assumptions about the wisdom of the average person we no longer hold, and it has not worked the way it was intended almost from the very be

Nov. 17, 2016

[John M. Crisp] Go to Mars? Let’s not

In an op-ed published last month, President Barack Obama proposed a partnership between the government and the private sector in pursuit of this goal: “sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time.”　Obama says that the space program “represents a central part of our character — curiosity and exploration, innovation and ingenuity, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and doing it before anybody

Nov. 16, 2016

Squeezing Islamic State: Let’s hope US allies don’t turn against each other

As Iraqi troops battle Islamic State group fighters street by street in the northern city of Mosul, another crucial phase in the bid to neutralize the militant group is shaping up 370 kilometers to the west. A joint Kurdish-Arab militia has begun encircling Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s de facto capital in Syria. It wasn’t long ago that IS had all the momentum, seizing swaths of land in Iraq and Syria. Now the group is being squeezed in two strongholds by simultaneous offensives.The strategy

Nov. 16, 2016

[Shashi Tharoor] The end of US soft power?

One major casualty of Donald Trump’s victory in the bruising US presidential election is, without a doubt, America’s soft power around the world. It is a development that will be difficult -- perhaps even impossible -- to reverse, especially for Trump.Traditionally, countries’ global political power was assessed according to military might: The one with the largest army had the most power. But that logic was not always reflected in reality. The US lost the Vietnam War; the Soviet Union was defea

Nov. 16, 2016

[Noah Smith] Asia’s two giants still have best growth stories

With globalization receding and China’s economy slowing down, there’s speculation the Asia boom is over. It isn’t. The ascension of China and India continues to be the most important economic story in the world.Both India and China have been growing much faster than the US. This is normal for poor countries, which have lots of room to catch up. But the sheer population size of both super-giant countries -- each with about four times as many people as the US -- means that these percentages add up

Nov. 16, 2016

[Jan-Werner Mueller] A majority of “deplorables”?

Barack Obama was right to say that democracy itself was on the ballot in the just-concluded US presidential election. But, with Donald Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton, do we now know for certain that a majority of Americans are anti-democratic? How should Clinton voters relate to Trump’s supporters and to the new administration?If Clinton had won, Trump most likely would have denied the new president’s legitimacy. Clinton’s supporters should not play that game. They might point out

Nov. 15, 2016

South Korea should prepare for Commander In Chief Trump

In times of crisis, victory favors the prepared. It is time for South Korea to prepare for the US President-elect Donald Trump to become the US commander in chief. Due to his campaign rhetoric, Trump has been called a racist, a xenophobe, a nationalist, a protectionist and a liar. In terms of foreign policy, Trump has called for the shrinking of US commitments overseas; for allies to shoulder more of their security burden; and for South Korea and Japan to consider the development and deployment

Nov. 15, 2016

[Andres Oppenheimer] Globalization takes it on the chin

President-elect Donald Trump’s win is a major blow to globalization and will probably lead to a period of US nationalist populism.Judging from what he has said publicly in recent months, Trump wants to take a step back from some of America’s major trade, climate, and political commitments with the rest of the world. He probably will not be able to do it all, even if he controls both houses of Congress, but he will owe it to his base to move in that direction.“Americanism, not globalism, will be

Nov. 15, 2016

[Yannis K. Semertzidis] Nobel Prize in sciences for Korea

I moved to this country in mid-October 2013 to become the director of the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research (CAPP) at the Institute for Basic Science at the KAIST campus in Daejeon. Often I am asked why Korea hasn’t earned a Nobel Prize in sciences yet. I believe that a Nobel Prize in science for Korea is just a matter of time. There is so much great work going on here with first-rate scientists that it should happen within a generation. The reason I firmly believe this is because

Nov. 14, 2016

First order of business: unite

One of the hallmarks of American democracy is the peaceful and respectful transfer of presidential power after the voters have had their say. On Tuesday tens of millions of Americans spoke and chose Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States.Though the contest was ugly -- and at times, unbearable to watch -- it’s time to, as a nation, put the vitriol of the campaign behind us and unite.Pundits and elites are surprised by this outcome, but the numbers tell the story of economic pa

Nov. 14, 2016

Trump must reassure nervous US allies

President-elect Donald Trump faces a full international inbox.Awaiting the 45th president are multiple Middle East crises and concurrent crises in confidence among allies in Europe and East Asia facing daunting foreign policy challenges of their own. Elsewhere, allies India and Pakistan are involved in spiraling skirmishes. There are hot spots such as Venezuela, which risks becoming a failed state, Central America, where high levels of violence increase instability, and oft forgotten conflicts i

Nov. 14, 2016

[Jeffrey Frankel] Who is President Trump?

Donald Trump’s stunning election victory has pushed the United States -- and the world -- into uncharted territory. The US has never before had a president with no political or military experience, nor one who so routinely shirks the truth, embraces conspiracy theories, and contradicts himself. All of this makes it almost impossible to know how he will govern.But Trump’s looming presidency does have a precedent: George W. Bush’s. Several parallels stand out. For starters, like Bush, Trump did no

Nov. 14, 2016