The Korea Herald

[Andrew Sheng] The imminent threat of climate change

Until very recently, few mainstream economists took climate change seriously in projecting growth. Weather is something the polite talk about when they have nothing to say. 　Today, climate change is moving onto center stage. 　Most people equate climate change with global warming. But climate change could be excessive heat, cold, or simply larger variations in temperature that could cause drought, floods, typhoons and other disasters at the same time. The large volcanic eruption like Krakotoa in

Aug. 21, 2016

[Park Sang-seek] Current challenges to US global leadership　

Recently, a debate on whether US hegemony in the world is declining and whether it is necessary for world peace has intensified in both West and non-West. This debate has also become a top campaign issue in the American presidential election. 　The leaders of the non-Western countries antagonistic to the US, including Russia and China, vehemently condemn American hegemony and its ideological foundation, American exceptionalism. A majority of the intellectuals in the non-West are also critical of

Aug. 21, 2016

[Park Sang-seek] Current challenges to US global leadership

[Rosa Brooks] The ugliness we needed to see

Be afraid! Even after weeks of missteps, polls suggest that more than a third of American voters still support Donald Trump. If Trump wins, expect to find him decorating the Oval Office with Hillary Clinton’s taxidermied head -- and expect to find me breaking rocks in a Trumpian labor and re-education camp along with all the rest of America’s journalists, its intellectuals, non-Christians, immigrants and people of color.But though the Trumpocalypse remains a worrying possibility, there may yet b

Aug. 19, 2016

[Rosa Brooks] The ugliness we needed to see

[Noah Smith] The Riddle of the Wall Street Brain Drain

Nowadays, if you’re a smart college graduate, Silicon Valley and its tech-startup scene is the hot place to be. But 10 years ago, it seemed like everyone with a brain and big ambitions wanted to go to Wall Street. The worlds of investment banking and trading were a golden ladder to the good life.Why did so many smart kids go into finance -- and why do so many still do so? One fairly obvious reason is that finance pays a lot of money. Maybe that‘s both cause and effect -- talent could be drawn to

Aug. 19, 2016

Numbers overrated in Thai politics

Playing with numbers will never end the Thai crisis. While most critics of the draft charter, which sailed through the referendum on Aug. 7, are accepting the outcome gracefully, a few have zeroed in on the relatively low voter turnout. Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan suggested that heads must roll among election commissioners because the turnout of just over 50 percent was a far cry from the pre-referendum “boasting” that targeted 80 percent.The undertone of the criticism from the never-say-d

Aug. 18, 2016

President must punish people behind fires

The devastating impact of forest and peatland fires on humans last year went beyond our tolerance. Dozens were killed, more than 500,000 others suffered from respiratory infections and 43 million people across Indonesia and neighboring states had to brave smog, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).With the fires recurring in Riau and Aceh, two of the regular hotspots in the country, last week, it is very much understandable that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo immediately c

Aug. 18, 2016

[Ravi Velloor] ASEAN should not drop the ball on integration

This is the seventh article in a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers across the region. 　A few days ago, I sat down with Mr. Dwight Hutchins, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Singapore, to discuss the chamber’s 2017 ASEAN Business Outlook Survey.Published in collaboration with the US Chamber of Commerce and conducted on behalf of companies from a nation that is the largest investor in

Aug. 18, 2016

[Ravi Velloor] ASEAN should not drop the ball on integration

[David Ignatius] How to deter Russia and China

The fight against the Islamic State group may get the headlines. But it is the military threats from Russia and China that most worry top Pentagon officials -- and are driving a new arms race to deter these great-power rivals. This question of how to deal with Russian and Chinese military advances has gotten almost no attention in the 2016 presidential campaign. But it deserves a careful look. The programs that begun in the waning days of the Obama administration could potentially change the fac

Aug. 18, 2016

[David Ignatius] How to deter Russia and China

[Noah Feldman] Go ahead and lie, Donald. You’re protected.

If only those First Amendment people could do something about Donald Trump. His latest attack on their sacred cow is the assertion that “It is not ‘freedom of the press’ when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!”That’s wrong as a matter of constitutional law. But it’s not crazy. In fact, the US Supreme Court has recently accorded a high degree of protection to falsehoods. And the kinds of justices that the Republican presidential n

Aug. 18, 2016

[Bruce J. Dickson] What ‘democratic’ means in China

China watchers in the West have been fruitlessly searching for signs of democracy for more than 25 years. But there has not been a sustained democracy movement in China since the tragic end of protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in 1989. Most outside observers agree that the People’s Republic remains what it has been since its founding in 1949: a one-party authoritarian regime.Most Chinese citizens do not see it that way, however. In a nationwide survey in 2014, more than 4,000 urban Chin

Aug. 17, 2016

[Andrew Malcolm] If Trump and Clinton both hate them, are all media bad?

In the early hours of D-Day 1944, the Allies landed 156,000 troops on the beaches of France, spelling doom for the Third Reich. In Berlin, 1,000 kilometers away, night-owl Adolf Hitler slept peacefully through the largest invasion in history. No aide dared awaken the boss with such bad news.Being a messenger can indeed be unpopular, even dangerous. Ask any member of the modern-day political media covering a most bizarre presidential race. Neither side, nor much of the audience, likes or helps th

Aug. 17, 2016

[Kim Myong-sik] Olympians prod compatriots to strive once again　

Our Olympic athletes are doing well in Rio de Janeiro toward their “10-10” goal of at least 10 gold medals and a top 10 finish in the overall medal standings. It is a modest goal considering the past records since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, when South Korea ranked fourth. For one of the “middle powers” of the world with a population of 50 million on a land of less than 100,000 square kilometers, Korea certainly has an impressive Olympic medals log, which ranked it 5th in London four year

Aug. 17, 2016

[Kim Myong-sik] Olympians prod compatriots to strive once again

Hacking the Democrats: What is Putin’s motive?

Democrats are bracing for another wave of embarrassing disclosures unleashed by what the US intelligence community asserts is a Russian-engineered hacking attack. Guccifer 2.0, the hacker (hackers?) believed to be tied to Russian intelligence, posted on Aug. 12 internal Democratic Party documents with email addresses and cellphone numbers for nearly 200 lawmakers. Guccifer also talked of plans to turn over to WikiLeaks another trove of sensitive material hacked from Democratic Party computers. “

Aug. 17, 2016

[Kim Hoo-ran] Human drama plays out at Olympics　

Every two years, we are privileged to witness the great human drama that is the Olympics. The 31st Summer Olympics underway at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are no exception, as records are broken, an underdog rises to the top, champions continue their reign and the defeated shake hands with their rivals.The more than 11,000 athletes from 207 national teams competing in Rio de Janeiro, including the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team, have trained for years, dedicating the prime of their youth, sometimes

Aug. 17, 2016

[Kim Hoo-ran] Human drama plays out at Olympics

[Kim Seong-kon]Koreans refuse to take no for an answer

People who visit their hometown to spend time with their parents during the holidays in Korea are likely to experience one thing in common: your mother’s persistent attempt to feed you. Here is what usually happens. As soon as you arrive home, your mother approaches you with a dish or fruit and a direct order to eat it. You decline, saying, “Thanks, Mom. But I’m good.” But your mother never gives up. She tenaciously insists, “You should eat this. It’s delicious.” You decline it again, saying, “I

Aug. 16, 2016

[Kim Seong-kon]Koreans refuse to take no for an answer

Thailand paying high price for its unresolved crises

Thai tourism businesses are bracing for the economic fallout from the bomb attacks that killed four and injured dozens of people, including foreign visitors in the seaside resorts Hua Hin and Phuket, two of the country’s major tourist destinations.Eleven small bombs were detonated across seven southern provinces on Thursday night and Friday morning in unprecedented attacks that appeared to have required serious planning and some degree of professionalism.Authorities said the bombs were similar t

Aug. 16, 2016

[Dick Meyer] Is real political leadership still possible?

Donald Trump is perhaps the most widely condemned public figure to hit the spotlight in years. He has been indicted as unfit, unstable, crazy, immoral, narcissistic, greedy, cruel, racist and dangerous by all the best -- the president, ex-presidents, Republicans, politicians, generals, intellectuals, billionaires and the Pope.Yet Trump’s campaign to be president enjoys the support of something like 40 percent of all voters, according to the polls. One wonders what level or volume of public vilif

Aug. 16, 2016

[Robert J. Fouser] The boom in “city walks”

In the history of South Korean urbanism, the 2010s will most likely go down as the decade of city walks, or “dapsa.” Aided by social media in the early years of the decade, groups of citizens formed walking groups that explored old neighborhoods in Seoul. Local governments joined in and began to sponsor walks and train leaders for the groups. Most events are on Saturdays and many alternate between city walks and mountain climbing.What caused the boom in city walks and what does it mean? Several

Aug. 16, 2016

[Robert J. Fouser] The boom in “city walks”

[Harlan Coben] A crowd-pleaser’s theory of Donald Trump

Think Donald Trump has some grand scheme behind his outbursts? Think his rhetoric is carefully thought out to produce a certain reaction? Think he meticulously plans each call for his followers to take up arms?　Sorry, no. There is no strategy here, folks. 　Sadly, this is the part of Trump I get too well. I do a lot of public speaking, and when I do, I try to gauge the audience because I love a reaction. Like any entertainer -- and that’s what an author tries to be on book tour -- I like to hear

Aug. 16, 2016

[Whitt Flora] Let nations compete to host Olympics

It would be very wrong to diminish the majesty and international scope of the Olympic Games by, as some are suggesting, anchoring them in Greece or on permanent sites on five continents.The seemingly endless problems with this year’s Rio Games have prompted calls to stop having nations compete to host the contests and hold them instead in permanent facilities in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.This would be a serious mistake. It would deprive nations of a chance to show national

Aug. 15, 2016