[Trudy Rubin] Campaign help from Russia?

 What do Queen Elizabeth II and Vladimir Putin have in common?Well, according to President Donald Trump, there is no difference between having a chat with Britain’s queen and accepting dirt about a political opponent from the Kremlin.When asked, in an astonishing interview with ABC News, whether he would welcome campaign help from an adversary like Russia or China, Trump said, “I’d take it.” He denied this amounted to election interference.More to the dangerous point

June 19, 2019

[Robert J. Fouser] Japan’s quiet moves toward accepting immigrants

The Olympics are no longer the big global moment that they were in the late 20th century, but, as events surrounding the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang showed, they still have symbolic power. The Summer Olympics in 2020 will be held in Tokyo, and a short visit on the way back to the US from South Korea reveals the effects of the symbolic power of the Olympics.As expected, the city is investing heavily in infrastructure. Many train and subway stations are being upgraded. New hotels are going up a

June 18, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] The best-case scenario vs. the worst-case scenario

We still remember that in the past our military dictators vastly exaggerated the threat from North Korea to justify tyranny, intimidating people with the fear of imminent war. Ex-military generals frequently triggered that fear so they could suppress the general public. At that time, the right-wing dictators bragged, “We are the only ones who can prevent war from breaking out on this peninsula.”Today, the situation is reversed. Now, the left-wing politicians who fought against the mi

June 18, 2019

[Jeffrey Frankel] US recovery turns 10

This month marks the 10th full year of the US economic recovery that began in June 2009. Back then, a “trough” in business activity signified the end of the Great Recession that followed the 2007-08 global financial crisis. The current expansion has continued, uninterrupted, ever since.The best explanation for the length of this recovery is disappointingly simple: The Great Recession was the United States’ worst downturn since the 1930s. The deeper the hole, the longer it

June 17, 2019

[Cass R. Sunstein] We are living in historic times. Or are we?

If we are living through historic events, would we know?In 1965, Arthur Danto, a philosopher at Columbia University, argued that it is impossible to tell, when you’re in the midst of things, whether an event is going to be deemed “historic” by future historians. If something happens -- Russia successfully reclaims Crimea, for example, or Pete Buttigieg declares that he’s running for president -- its ultimate significance will be determined by causal chains that cannot pos

June 17, 2019

[Kasia Malinowska] How US drug war victimizes women

It has been two years since Cecilia’s son, Carlos, set sail from the coast of Ecuador on an ordinary day’s fishing voyage. She has not heard from him since. At first, she feared that his fishing trawler had sunk or been attacked by pirates. But the fate Carlos turned out to have met was more surreal than that, and in a way, even more harrowing: deep in international waters, thousands of miles from the United States, he was detained by the US coast guard. He has been locked away i

June 16, 2019

[David Ignatius] Is the Iran-US tinderbox about to ignite?

As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of “unprovoked attacks” near the Strait of Hormuz, video screens behind him showed thick black smoke billowing from the two tankers that were struck Thursday. It was the dramatic imagery that sometimes precedes armed conflict. Pompeo didn’t offer hard evidence, and Iran denied the attacks.The US response in the escalating confrontation with Iran, for now, seems to be continued pressure short of war. “Our policy remains an eco

June 16, 2019

[Hong Seok-in] What’s so public about Korea’s Public Diplomacy?

Listed among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2019, Korea’s seven-member boy band BTS can count 19 music videos with more than 1 million views on YouTube and three hit songs ranked No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart as just a few of its accomplishments. When BTS releases a new single, fans immediately translate their lyrics into various languages. Some take it a step further, learning Korean to understand the song in its original form. In September 2018, BTS spoke

June 13, 2019

[Min Gab-ryong] Brave new world requires brave new answers

Universal usage of the internet has allowed humanity to venture into a domain our ancestors would have never dreamed of: cyberspace. The extensive freedom and convenience brought by the development of information and communication technology makes it very difficult to recall the days that lacked the fancy tools and services we relish today. Can modern man’s life be described well without referring to cyberspace and the connectivity it brings? Most would say otherwise. This shift towar

June 12, 2019

[Kim Hoo-ran] Lee Hee-ho’s legacy as activist, first lady offers lesson for all

When former first lady Lee Hee-ho, who passed away Monday night aged 96, and Kim Dae-jung tied the knot in 1962, they entered into a lifelong partnership that would endure numerous hardships and tribulations.By all accounts, most people on Lee’s side opposed the marriage. She was a well-educated woman who had studied sociology in the US and was playing an active role in the country’s nascent women’s rights movement. Her colleagues and family thought that marriage to Kim, an opp

June 12, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Reading Zack Rogow's poems in this harsh world

When I first heard Zack Rogow reading from his deeply moving poem, “Skating Lessons” at a poetry reading in San Francisco in 2006, I was mesmerized by his exquisite poetic sensitivity in the way he rendered a little girl’s painful initiation into adulthood on an ice rink and her father’s sad feelings of parting with her. The poem beautifully captured the moment of a father’s last skating lessons for his daughter: “I tugged my six-year-old around the rink/ shoc

June 11, 2019

[Lee Jae-min] A well-intended policy gone awry

After four deferrals in eight years since 2011, the revised Higher Education Act goes into effect this August. With roughly one month left, colleges and universities are preoccupied with how to implement new requirements under the law. There are still many unanswered questions and missing details. If you have any doubt, this is a well-intentioned law in all respects. It aims to protect the rights and working conditions of part-time lecturers at colleges and universities nationwide. Their employm

June 11, 2019

[Andrew Sheng] On board SS Planet Titanic

World Environment Day (June 5) was a good time to reflect on the existential threat of climate change.After five of the hottest years in living history, there is little doubt that climate change is moving center stage in the global agenda. The UN has warned that a million species are in danger of becoming extinct, with climate scientists claiming that we may have less than 10 to15 years to correct our carbon emission trajectory. It is no longer IF climate disaster will happen, only WHEN and how

June 10, 2019

[Carl P. Leubsdorf] Uncertain times for US, allies

Seventy-five years ago, thousands of American and allied sailors, soldiers and aviators braved heavy seas and murderous German fire in the historic invasion that began the decisive campaign to end Nazi control of Europe.　 The success of the D-Day landings, Europe’s liberation 11 months later and its economic recovery over ensuing decades were a tribute not only to the bravery of the invading troops but to the unprecedented military and political unity that American presidents from Frank

June 10, 2019

[David Ignatius] Trump disdains postwar architecture

President Trump spoke the right words in commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, but did he mean them? So far, his presidency has been about defying the postwar order that was based on shared values and global partnership, rather than cementing its legacy. Trump spoke here Thursday at what he rightly described as “freedom’s altar,” the burial site for nearly 10,000 Americans who died in the 1944 invasion of Normandy and in subsequent battles that ultimately led to Nazi Ger

June 9, 2019

[George Soros] Europe’s silent majority speaks out

Last month’s elections to the European Parliament produced better results than one could have expected, and for a simple reason: The silent pro-European majority has spoken. What they said is that they want to preserve the values on which the European Union was founded, but that they also want radical changes in the way the EU functions. Their main concern is climate change. This favors the pro-European parties, especially the Greens. The anti-European parties, which cannot be expected

June 9, 2019

[Leonid Bershidsky] Russia after Vladimir Putin

Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has, outwardly at least, been one of the world’s most stable and predictable regimes -- an assertive authoritarian government propped up by a mix of repression and acquiescence at home.So it’s only natural that some of the country’s leading analytical minds are looking to life after Putin is scheduled to depart in 2024: The present is too depressing to discuss.The Free Russia Foundation, a Washington-based th

June 6, 2019

[David Ignatius] Britain is club Trump wants to join

President Trump’s love-hate relationship with Britain has been on display in London this week. This ambivalence takes an especially bizarre turn in comments by the president and his supporters about British intelligence, historically America’s most important secret partner. After bashing prominent British figures on his way to London, Trump was on good behavior Tuesday, after a glittering state dinner the night before with the queen. He paid ritual homage to the special alliance betw

June 6, 2019

[Elizabeth Drew] To impeach or not to impeach

As the US Congress returns from a 10-day break, the question of whether the House of Representatives (controlled by the Democrats) should formally commence the process of impeaching President Donald Trump for misdeeds committed during his tenure -- and perhaps before -- has split the party. Theoretically, impeachment by the House would be followed by a trial in the Senate. But the Senate, controlled by the Republicans, is considered highly unlikely to convict their party’s standard-bearer,

June 5, 2019