The Korea Herald

[Eli Lake] Duterte just blew up Obama’s Asia pivot　

Does anyone remember President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia? The plan was to focus diplomatic and military assets in East Asia to contain a rising China. It was one of the reasons Obama said he was shrinking the American footprint in the Middle East.Well, the pivot is failing. On Thursday, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, announced to an audience at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing a “separation” with the U.S. “America has lost now,” he said. “d maybe I will also go to R

Oct. 24, 2016

[Eli Lake] Duterte just blew up Obama’s Asia pivot

[Andres Oppenheimer] UNESCO passes absurd resolution on Jerusalem

UNESCO, the United Nations organization supposedly in charge of education, science and culture, has passed many insane resolutions in the past. But its latest vote to essentially deny Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem has reached new heights of political madness.Fortunately, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNESCO’s own director Irina Bokova and other top UN officials have distanced themselves from the Oct. 13 Palestinian-backed resolution, which effectively denies Judaism and Christianity

Oct. 24, 2016

The Taliban is testing US military

Afghanistan government military and police forces trained and equipped by the United States are finding themselves increasingly challenged by the Taliban outside the capital, Kabul.The Obama administration’s theory in Afghanistan and Iraq is that their militaries’ forces can be strengthened to the point that US forces can be withdrawn without their governments being overrun by their enemies. In the case of Afghanistan, it’s the Taliban; in Iraq, the Islamic State.In Iraq, the theory is being tes

Oct. 24, 2016

[Elizabeth Drew] Wave election in America?

With the world mesmerized by the United States’ presidential race this year, the race for control of the US House of Representatives and Senate has been largely overlooked. But the outcome of the congressional elections could make or break the next president’s agenda.For all the power a president has, the 100-member Senate determines the fate of international treaties as well as the president’s nominations and legislative proposals. The 435-member House does not have as much power as the Senate,

Oct. 23, 2016

[Elizabeth Drew] Wave election in America?

[Justin Fox] Why Nokia couldn’t beat the iPhone

In autumn 2007, Jorma Ollila, who had stepped down the year before as Nokia’s chief executive officer but was still the chairman, polled 12 top company executives on whether they thought Apple’s new iPhone posed a big threat. Two said “no,” Ollila recalls in “Against All Odds,” a surprisingly engrossing memoir first published in Finland in 2013 but just now translated into English.The other 10 thought the iPhone would prove a serious competitor that we shouldn’t underestimate. Some of them expre

Oct. 23, 2016

[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Asia remains vulnerable to uncertainty in advanced economies

It is not easy to keep an orderly house in an unsettled neighborhood. That’s the major hurdle facing Asian economies as the advanced world deals with unusual economic, financial, institutional and political fluidity. Judging from China’s gross domestic product data released this week, Asia is in a relatively favorable position to navigate the challenges. But the battle is far from won.In more normal times, Asia only needed to ask two major economic questions about the advanced countries: How str

Oct. 23, 2016

[Martin Schram] Putin’s American Insider defends political saboteurs

With just three weeks to go until Election Day, one political figure has already achieved the sort of stunning American political success famous predecessors never dreamed would be possible.Sadly, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin clearly had as his fondest goal somehow disrupting the world’s most famous democracy — and perhaps even causing some Americans to lose faith in their cherished democratic process. But surely even Putin never thought he would lucky enough to have his dirty w

Oct. 23, 2016

[Martin Schram] Putin’s American Insider defends political saboteurs

[Dan Rodricks] Attacks on government ensure best, brightest take talents elsewhere

I knew a group of men, brilliant scientists and astute attorneys, who took jobs with the federal government to serve their country and make it a better place. They were college graduates of the 1960s who had heard John F. Kennedy’s call to public service -- “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” -- and who a decade later took JFK’s challenge into government jobs in food safety and environmental protection.But within two decades, Ronald Reagan ascended to

Oct. 23, 2016

When Climate Campaigners Miss the Point

Voters in Washington state will be asked next month whether they want to adopt the nation‘s first carbon tax -- a powerful way to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. You’d think environmental groups would be doing everything they can to back that idea. You‘d be wrong.Initiative 732 will be on the ballot on Election Day. It calls for a $25-per-ton carbon tax, and it says how the proceeds should be spent: Trim the state’s sales tax, cut taxes on manufacturers, and give tax rebates to low-income househo

Oct. 23, 2016

Why global trade will endure

They say you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but if you could, here’s how we imagine it: An American company invents the process and then outsources physical genie-stuffing to a factory in Mexico. The empty bottles are shipped in from Taiwan.No, we’re not really thinking about genies — we’re contemplating the global economy. Once a country becomes part of the international order of things, it’s not easy or cheap to retreat to the previous way of life. Free trade and free genies are simil

Oct. 21, 2016

[David Ignatius] Trump, foreign policy and ‘Survivor’

Reality TV is about winning. It doesn't matter how you manage to be a “survivor,” so long as you stay on the island. That’s the sensibility that Donald Trump, the ultimate reality television star, brings to foreign policy. In Trump's world, winners don’t have to worry about alliances, nuclear proliferation or human rights -- if they come out on top. Trump's comments during Wednesday night’s debate in Las Vegas conveyed a values-free approach to foreign policy that would make Machiavelli blush. A

Oct. 21, 2016

[David Ignatius] Trump, foreign policy and ‘Survivor’

[Tulsathit Taptim] A tale of three loose-tongued politicians

One is American. Another is anti-America. The third has just sneaked in and out of America; he and America are strange bedfellows at the moment. But Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte and Thaksin Shinawatra have at least one thing in common: Their boasting and provocative comments know no bounds.　Trump‘s “race to the bottom,” as his opponents term it, is in full throttle, although as far as he is concerned there is no bottom in sight. His political incorrectness is testing everyone’s limits with each

Oct. 20, 2016

[Warren Fernandez] Toxic Trump and his trumped up foes

One newspaper called him a “most unlikely pretender to high office,” a “dunderhead” with a “big mouth,” known for his “scattershot, impulsive style.” He had a penchant for long, rambling speeches, projecting himself in messianic terms, promising to lead the country to a new era of greatness. He emerged amid a “constellation of crises” -- economic hardship and unemployment, an “erosion of the political center” and a “growing resentment against the elites.” This fed a hunger for a strongman toutin

Oct. 20, 2016

[Warren Fernandez] Toxic Trump and his trumped up foes

[Robert B. Reich] Hillary Clinton, Paul Ryan and the crisis of American capitalism

Hillary Clinton won‘t be the only winner when Donald Trump and his fellow haters are defeated on Election Day (as looks increasingly likely). Another will be Paul Ryan, who will rule the Republican roost.　Democrats may take back the Senate, but they won’t take back the House. Gerrymandering has given House Republicans an impregnable fortress of safe seats.　This means that in order for President Hillary Clinton to get anything done, she‘ll have to make deals with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.　W

Oct. 20, 2016

US shouldn’t wait until the next disaster to do more for Haiti

With so much happening in the US, including a pivotal presidential election and coastal states’ daunting recovery from Hurricane Matthew, maybe it’s understandable that the storm’s impact on Haiti has been an afterthought for many Americans. But the death and destruction in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation shouldn’t be ignored.The United States and Haiti were the first nations in the hemisphere to break free from colonial rule.A 2010 earthquake that left more than 200,000 dead and sproute

Oct. 20, 2016

[David Ignatius] As our Election Day approaches, the world holds its breath

Making predictions three weeks before the US election is risky, but the likeliest bet right now is that the center will hold in American politics and Hillary Clinton will be elected president. That’s important for lots of reasons, the biggest of which is that it could begin to stabilize a very unsettled world. Nate Silver, a leading polling guru, projected Monday night that based on major surveys, the chances of a Clinton victory had increased to 88 percent, up 5 points in a week and 33 points f

Oct. 20, 2016

[David Ignatius] As our Election Day approaches, the world holds its breath

[Park Sang-seek] How to deal with the North Korean nuclear threat?

Since North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Oct. 9 this year, both South Korean and US governments, political leaders, scholars, research organizations and mass media have put forward their solutions to the issue. They can be classified into two categories: solutions through negotiations and solutions through confrontational actions.Those who believe that the North Korean leadership is suffering from a siege mentality advocate solutions through negotiations. They suggest five types of

Oct. 19, 2016

[Park Sang-seek] How to deal with the North Korean nuclear threat?

[Barry Ritholtz] The next recession is coming. Big deal.

You have to hand it to economists -- they say the darnedest things.In a Wall Street Journal survey, a group of economists “put the odds of the next downturn happening within the next four years at nearly 60 percent.” Oh no.Today, we will make another entry in the catalog of how worthless predictions tend to be, and more specifically why economists’ long-term forecasts are so uniquely useless.Let’s start with the math: Saying a recession might occur within the next four years is a statement that

Oct. 19, 2016

Getting women into close-combat assignments requires men to step up

In December, the Pentagon finally opened all combat jobs to women. Since then only 180 have signed up for the two branches that previously were off-limits -- infantry and armor. To illustrate how few that is, the US Army’s active-duty infantry is made up of more than 60,000 soldiers. The number of female troops volunteering for the newly opened “close-combat” jobs is a pittance.The US Army’s highest-ranking noncommissioned officer recently sent an email to every soldier in the ranks, asking wome

Oct. 19, 2016

Weak deal on airplane emissions

Cheers rose from prominent voices around the world this month when almost all countries agreed to reduce the climate costs of international air travel. The United Nations and White House applauded the deal, as did the airline industry and even some environmentalists. Yet the agreement hardly qualifies for the praise. It stands to do little to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes.　These emissions are certainly a problem. Airlines currently account for just 2 percent of global greenhouse

Oct. 19, 2016