[Joseph E. Stiglitz] What pandemic preparedness would look like

Humanity was caught off guard by the COVID-19 pandemic, even though we had effectively been warned by smaller-scale outbreaks -- of SARS, Ebola, MERS and bird flu -- for decades. US President Barack Obama, recognizing the true nature of the threat infectious diseases might pose, even created a Global Health Security and Biodefense unit within the National Security Council. But Donald Trump, in his infinite wisdom, shut it down. Given the strong odds that we will face another pandemic sooner or l

Oct. 12, 2023

[Elizabeth Shackelford] Politics harming US national security

America’s national security depends heavily on the strength and effectiveness of our foreign policy and defense. Both are suffering self-inflicted wounds caused by our dysfunctional politics. As our political representatives can barely accomplish the most basic governing obligations, our adversaries delight, and our allies wonder if we can be counted on as reliable partners. The most blatant mess has been our government’s budget debacle. We have the world’s largest economy and

Oct. 11, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] Friendly advice from foreign experts who love Korea

Many young foreigners these days love K-pop so much that they do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy a ticket for a K-pop concert. They are also fond of the K-movies and K-dramas streamed on Netflix. Many of them idolize K-pop singers and want to visit the country that has produced such charming and appealing pop culture. But for K-politics, things are quite the opposite. While K-pop and K-film have made South Korea proud, K-politics has been an embarrassment. Foreign experts who care ab

Oct. 11, 2023

[Svenja Schulze, Christina Chilimba] Investing in gender equality

Despite coming from vastly different beginnings -- one of us comes from a fishing district in Malawi with one of the country’s highest adolescent pregnancy rates, the other grew up in West Germany during the height of the women’s movement -- we have both seen the transformative impact of empowering women and girls. What also unites us is the same sense of urgency for more to be done -- faster and at a bigger scale. During the first 20 years of this century, progress toward equality w

Oct. 10, 2023

[Contribution] Police solidarity and cooperation against public security uncertainties

By Yoon Hee-keun Industrialization and advanced technology have driven human progress, but they can also, ironically, lead to environmental disasters and transnational dangers. An OECD report, “Emerging Risks in the 21st Century,” published in 2003, forecast that modern society would face five major risks: natural disasters, technological accidents, infectious diseases, food safety and terrorism-related risks. Twenty years later, these forecasts appear to be becoming a reality. COVID

Oct. 9, 2023

[Trudy Rubin] Milley's warning in MAGA madness

In recent days, the country has been subjected to a chilling preview of what MAGA rule would look like if Donald Trump returns to power, as America’s allies looked on in shock while its enemies had good reason to cheer. Having failed to shut down the government, but succeeded in axing Ukraine aid, a handful of Trump acolytes on Capitol Hill set out to cripple the US government by other means. Led by MAGA Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose narcissism trumps Trump, these Republican Party hard-liners axe

Oct. 9, 2023

[Daniel DePetris] Europe will prove more crucial in Ukraine war

After weeks of finger-pointing, rhetorical gamesmanship and intra-Republican high jinks, Congress managed to avoid a federal government shutdown over the weekend by passing a 45-day stopgap funding package. US President Joe Biden wasted no time signing it into law. For supporters of additional military aid to Ukraine, the continuing resolution was a bitter pill to swallow. Despite last-minute lobbying from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the law doesn’

Oct. 9, 2023

[Robert J. Fouser] ‘Global English’ in 2023

International academic conferences always offer insight into the status and use of English as a global language. In late September this year, I was fortunate enough to have the chance to submit a paper at a conference on comparative punctuation organized by the University of Regensburg in Germany. For three days, scholars discussed the use of punctuation from a variety of perspectives, but papers on historical and linguistic perspectives were most common. The official language of the conference

Oct. 6, 2023

[F.D. Flam] Don't worry about global population

The world’s massive human population is leveling off. Most projections show we’ll hit peak humanity in the 21st century, as people choose to have smaller families and women gain power over their own reproduction. This is great news for the future of our species. And yet alarms are sounding. While environmentalists have long warned of a planet with too many people, now some economists are warning of a future with too few. For example, economist Dean Spears from the University of Texas

Oct. 5, 2023

[Wang Son-taek] Korea-US alliance 70 years: Opportunities and challenges

The South Korea-US alliance celebrated its 70th anniversary on October 1. Exactly 70 years have passed since Korea and the United States signed the Mutual Defense Treaty on Oct. 1, 1953. The Korea-US alliance can be evaluated as a successful one for both nations. First, the alliance was a safety valve to ensure peace and stability while preventing a second Korean War on the Korean Peninsula. The Korean War was a tragedy in which about 3 million people were killed. The war was a huge hell that

Oct. 5, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] House of straws, sticks, or bricks

Children in many countries grow up reading and listening to the famous fairytale “Three Little Pigs.” In the story, three little pigs decide to build houses of their own. The first pig builds himself a house of straw, the second little pig a house of sticks, and the third little pig a house of bricks. As we know, when the big bad wolf comes and tries to blow their houses down, both the straw house and the stick house fall down. Only the brick house endures the strong huffing and puff

Oct. 4, 2023

[John M. Crisp] Capital punishment: 2 choices for America

You wouldn’t think that it would be that hard to kill someone. History indicates that we’ve always been good at it. It took only one generation before Cain killed Abel in a fit of jealousy over divine approbation. Murder had been invented and we’ve never looked back. In fact, we’ve only gotten better at killing. Cain must have used a club or rock on Abel, but in modern times our killing capacity has gone ballistic -- literally. We’ve invented powerful and efficient

Sept. 28, 2023

[Lee Kyong-hee] Kishida’s summit overture to Pyongyang

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pressed rewind and expressed his desire for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The overture last week was the same as last year. In between, Kishida has suggested high-level talks to set up a summit and North Korea has responded promptly and positively. But it also attached a caveat. “There is no reason for the DPRK and Japan not to meet, if Tokyo is not being shackled by the past,” said the North&r

Sept. 28, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] “The Big Country” and “A City upon a Hill”

When I first watched William Wyler’s 1958 movie, “The Big Country” as a little boy, I was mesmerized by the charming personality of the protagonist James McKay, played by major star Gregory Peck. McKay is a man from the American East who has just arrived in the West to marry his fiancee, Patricia Terrill, a daughter of Henry Terrill, a man who owns the biggest ranch in the region. In the eyes of tough Westerners, McKay is nothing but a weak Easterner who does not fit in with t

Sept. 27, 2023

[Mariana Mazzucato, Damon Silvers] Auto workers and climate change

The United Auto Workers’ first-ever strike against the so-called “Big Three” (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler-owner Stellantis) underscores the need to bring climate action, economic growth, and workers’ rights into alignment. Public policies aimed at increasing the production and sales of electric vehicles have the power to catalyze innovation and private-sector investment in ways that benefit workers. But realizing that potential requires a new understanding of the r

Sept. 27, 2023

[Howard Davies] Bank supervision: Quality matters

Bank capital is back in the financial headlines. In late July, US banking regulators, led by the Federal Reserve, announced plans to finalize the so-called Basel 3 reforms (which banks like to call Basel 4, owing to their significant impact). The aim, according to a joint agency proposal, is “to improve the strength and resilience of the banking system” by modifying large capital requirements to better reflect underlying risks, and by applying more transparent and consistent requirem

Sept. 25, 2023

[Jean Guerrero] What first-generation students need

First-generation college students are less alone than they were a decade ago. Today, more than half of America's undergraduate students have parents who never got bachelor's degrees. Many campuses have programs to empower them, such as by connecting them with mentors, academic support and financial aid. But there's a lot more that can be done. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down race-conscious college admissions, first-generation students are a logical group for universitie

Sept. 22, 2023

[Wang Son-taek] New Cold War is not coming

There are more discussions that a so-called new Cold War is on the way. Similar to the Soviet-led communist bloc during the Cold War era, which confronted the US-led capitalist bloc, North Korea, China and Russia could form an international bloc against the US-led one. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent visit to Russia drew attention because it was an opportunity to promote discussions of the new Cold War further. North Korea and Russia have mocked the UN Security Council's res

Sept. 21, 2023

[Mihir Sharma] India needs to stop the bleeding from Canada killing

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dramatic statement in parliament that there were “credible allegations” Indian intelligence was behind the murder of a radical Sikh activist in British Columbia came as a shock to many in India for a couple of reasons. For one thing, most of us still believe that we’re the good guys and our government doesn’t do this kind of thing. More importantly, if India actually did conduct an assassination on Western soil -- which its

Sept. 21, 2023