[Martin Schram] A crisis we still can fix

We’re in Mexicantown, a neighborhood in the 27th-largest city in the USA. We’ve just had a bite to eat at Los Galanes, the restaurant we chose over Xochimilco, which is nearby. Now our car is heading south, on this fine February day, so we can drive over the bridge and across the border. Uh-oh -- we’re in a helluva traffic jam. Lots of huge trucks. Tiny cars trapped in between. No one is moving. Across the bridge, we can see the country we’re trying to drive to. Just can

April 12, 2022

[Doug Badger, Kevin Dayaratna] Time to end the COVID emergency

Much has changed since President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers to combat the spread of COVID-19. Immunity, whether natural or acquired through vaccines, is much more widespread, and breakthrough treatments are available. While the disease may never be completely eradicated, it’s time to return to a public health policy that prizes individual liberty over government authority. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden remains unwilling to relinquish the emergency powers he has wielded sin

April 11, 2022

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Shock therapy for neoliberals

The fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reminded us of the unforeseeable disruptions constantly confronting the global economy. We have been taught this lesson many times. No one could have predicted the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and few anticipated the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, or Donald Trump’s election, which resulted in the United States turning toward protectionism and nationalism. Even those who did anticipate these crises could not have

April 11, 2022

[Robert J. Fouser] Structural changes needed in STEM research

One of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign promises is to transform South Korea into a leader in STEM research. The promise follows decades of presidential efforts to promote science and technology as part of the broader economic and social development plans. Presidents have come and gone, but each effort has built on the other, leaving the country in a strong position to achieve the president-elect’s promise. The quantification of academic activity has produced various indices

April 8, 2022

[Kim Myong-sik] Bumpy road ahead in Korea’s change of power

About a month has passed since the March 9 presidential election in South Korea, in which a former prosecutor-general who joined the main opposition party at the last minute won with a razor-thin margin. Right-wing President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol picked a former prime minister under a past leftist government to lead his first Cabinet. Han Duck-soo was chosen for his rich experience as an economic administrator and in hopes of an easier endorsement by the National Assembly, now dominated by the i

April 7, 2022

[Peter Singer, Oleksandr Todorchuk] The nonhuman victims of Putin’s war

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had, and is continuing to have, catastrophic consequences for many people. But Ukraine’s people are not the war’s only victims -- and many Ukrainians refuse to ignore that fact. The thousands of human casualties include more than 1,200 Ukrainian civilians killed, and many more injured. These numbers are growing each day, and the Russian retreat from around Kyiv has brought to light new evidence of war crimes. Nearly 5,000 people have been killed i

April 7, 2022

[Chang-Tai Hsieh] Taiwan’s fatal attractions

In the same week that Taiwanese took to the streets to repudiate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan’s leaders rolled out the red carpet for a visit by former US President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. This is the same man who, together with Trump, withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure its government to initiate a bogus investigation into Joe Biden’s son, and who then fired the US ambassador to Ukraine when she refused to go along with the exto

April 6, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Things change, but some things never change

People say, “Things change.” However, “Some things never change,” as the maxim says. It is especially true in Korea. For example, as the Yoon administration is about to launch, people begin talking about the urgency of “normalizing the abnormal” that the previous Moon administration has created for the past five years. They argue that Korea’s diplomacy with China and North Korea or with Japan and the US has been far from normal. They point out that the

April 6, 2022

[Doyle McManus] Biden’s defense budget is big. Democrats will vote to make it bigger

Last week, President Joe Biden sent Congress his proposed defense budget for the next fiscal year: an $813 billion wish list, almost $60 billion more than he requested a year ago -- more military spending than any president, including Donald Trump, has requested since World War II. Once Congress approves the request -- and, in all likelihood, makes it bigger -- US defense spending will be larger in inflation-adjusted dollars than it was at the height of the Vietnam War or President Ronald Reaga

April 5, 2022

[Thomas Spoehr] Military recruiting is increasingly AWOL. Can we fix it?

It’s national budget time in Washington, so the conversation on Capitol Hill is focused on numbers. But an important number is being overlooked, one that affects our ability to defend ourselves. At a time when threats abroad are growing, America’s ability to recruit the volunteers needed to fully staff its armed forces is on the wane. The 2023 defense budget request just released by the Biden administration reduces the size of the US Army by 12,000 soldiers. It isn’t that the

April 5, 2022

[Charles A. Kupchan] Western unity starts at home

The solidarity on display at the recent NATO, US-EU, and G7 summits, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to wage war on Ukraine, revealed a rejuvenated West. The Atlantic democracies have responded to Russia’s invasion with impressive -- and somewhat unexpected -- unity as they arm Ukraine, reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, and sanction the Russian economy. Instead of turning away migrants, European Union member states are opening their doors to millions of Ukrainian refugee

April 1, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Myopia, machismo and Dragon Hill

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s plan to relocate the presidential office before his May 10 inauguration is abrupt and absurd. The decision, slathered in opaqueness, not only defies public opinion and risks gross overspending, it intensifies security concerns amid increasing North Korean missile tests. None of that seems to matter to Yoon, known for his bulldog mentality when he was a prosecutor. With logistics denying his original relocation plan, he now wants to move to the Ministry of

March 31, 2022

[Doyle McManus] Elements of peace deal in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine, which just entered its second month, shows no sign of ending soon. Russia’s huge but incompetent army has been stymied in its attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other cities. Ukraine’s defenders have put up a heroic fight, but civilians in besieged towns are suffering a terrible toll. Neither army appears ready to quit. That, diplomats say, is why the chances for a cease-fire look so dim. In recent talks, officials from both countries have sugg

March 30, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] ‘Paradise regained?’ Nightmares in dreamland

Even in dreamland, nightmares can infiltrate. Heaven was not an exception: Lucifer rebelled against God and fell down to this mundane world. The same goes for the Garden of Eden. Due to the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel, Satan, paradise is lost. Those who voted for Yoon Suk-yeol as the next president of South Korea are now breathing a sigh of relief, saying, “The nightmare is over, at last.” Nevertheless, that does not mean South Korea has regained paradise. Perhap

March 30, 2022

[J. Bradford DeLong] America’s macroeconomic outlook

Many who now worry about rising inflation in the United States may disagree, but the US Federal Reserve should take a victory lap. Just consider what the Fed has achieved over the past two years. At this time in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had pushed employment down by a massive 14 percent when large portions of the economy were forced to shut down. And although employment bounced back when the economy began to reopen, it nonetheless remained 7 percent below its pre-pandemic level. Getting bac

March 29, 2022

[Takatoshi Ito] East Asian security after Ukraine

Across Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has spurred a rethink of virtually all dimensions of security, from defense to energy. The war’s likely impact on security in East Asia, especially in Taiwan and Japan, has received far less attention. But the coming transformation may turn out to be just as profound. The Ukraine war, though far away, poses a substantial risk to East Asia. China is watching the conflict -- and the West’s response -- closely. If Russia pays a high pri

March 28, 2022

[Elizabeth Shackelford] How to lead with diplomacy, and not just in Ukraine

President Joe Biden and his top foreign policy advisers have demonstrated how effective diplomacy can be in a crisis. They have worked tirelessly to build a powerful, coordinated response to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Though this has not yet ended the war, it has greatly increased the cost to Putin. It has also sucked up most of the oxygen in the White House, the National Security Council and the State Department. But other crises haven’t abated in the meantime, from Yemen to

March 28, 2022

[Robert J. Fouser] Yoon Suk-yeol’s razor-thin victory

The closest presidential election in South Korean history ended with conservative Yoon Suk-yeol winning by 0.73 percent of the vote. The divisive campaign alienated broad swaths of the electorate, but Yoon’s ability to keep conservatives united while drawing strong support from young men put him over the top. Yoon also benefited from winning in Seoul, which has gone for liberal candidates in every election except 2007 when Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory. Compared to previous winner

March 25, 2022