Catch-22 of nationalism

On Christmas Day, hopes for high-level peace talks between India and Pakistan were higher than they’d been in years. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, and the two shared a very public and symbolic hug. Now, just two weeks later, the optimism is mostly gone. After terrorists from Pakistan attacked an Indian air base, killing seven Indian security personnel, Modi told Sharif that talks wouldn’t go forward unless Pakistan took acti

Jan. 11, 2016

Obama won’t coast to the end of his term

Republicans claim that Barack Obama is too passive on foreign policy. A few Democrats see him that way when it comes to politics. The president, however, is planning an aggressive finale.　The one-year countdown to the end of his time in office begins Tuesday with his final State of the Union address. Although this is an election year and the political environment is poisonous, Obama envisions a couple of major legislative achievements, notably the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and an

Jan. 11, 2016

Be scared of China’s debt, not its stocks

China’s stock market is crashing again. After two days this week with big and rapid declines -- the latest of which shut off trading only a few minutes after the open -- Chinese stocks are back in the neighborhood of their mid-2015 lows. The raft of administrative measures that the Chinese government has used to prop up its markets since the big plunge last year seems to only have postponed further declines, rather than prevented them. 　　U.S. stock markets have also fallen a lot, probably as a r

Jan. 10, 2016

How much experience should a president have?

T. Boone Pickens is upset about a presidential nominating process he says “emphasizes accusation and innuendo” and wants to form “a bipartisan screening committee” to recommend “the best candidates possible.” 　That’s unlikely to happen. But the billionaire oilman and longtime Republican donor is onto something when he questions whether the American political system produces the best possible presidents — even the best of those seeking the job. 　Indeed, as one veteran analyst wrote, recent electi

Jan. 10, 2016

[Chris Stone] The public sphere’s new enemies

Before November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, it was legal to stage a demonstration in a public square in that city. Now it isn’t. In Uganda, although citizens campaigning against corruption or in favor of gay rights often faced a hostile public, they didn’t face jail time for demonstrating. But under a frighteningly vague new statute, now they do. In Egypt, government authorities recently raided and shut down prominent cultural institutions – an art gallery, a theater, and a publishing house –

Jan. 8, 2016

How Thailand missed the boat on ASEAN

In marking the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community on Dec. 31, Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha missed the point in urging Thais to stay alert to new opportunities and improve their English-language skills. These are surely important, but they are not key values for regional integration.　Speaking on the eve of the AEC’s advent, Prayut encouraged people to develop new skills and knowledge that would benefit both their individual careers and the competitiveness of the nation as a whole.　Th

Jan. 7, 2016

U.S. can afford to side with Iran over Saudis

The rapidly escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, sparked by the execution of a Saudi Shiite activist, may seem like the natural outgrowth of a decade’s Sunni-Shiite tensions. But more than denominational differences, what’s driving the open conflict is the Saudis’ deepening fear that the U.S. is shifting its loyalties in the Persian Gulf region from its traditional Saudi ally to a gradually moderating Iran. And in a sense, they’re right: Although the U.S. is a long way from becomin

Jan. 6, 2016

Why using exciting words can make you worse writer

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” — Ernest Hemingway　Leilen Shelton, a middle school teacher in Costa Mesa, California, might translate that famous dictum from the famously plain-writing Hemingway this way: “All you have to do is write one illuminating, ineluctably verifiable sentence. Author the most perspicacious sentence that you comprehend.”　Shelton wrote “Banish Boring Words,” a crusade against milquetoast words like “good,” “bad,” “fu

Jan. 6, 2016

Kill pain and addiction

There is a grim connection between two worsening addictions in the U.S.: to prescription opioid painkillers and to heroin. Both can be partly traced to worthwhile public-health initiatives that deserve to be protected.The first initiative was a 1990s campaign to get doctors to take people’s pain more seriously. This worked amazingly well -- for some people, too well. The second effort was the recent response to the ensuing spike in opioid addiction: Legal controls on painkiller prescriptions wer

Jan. 5, 2016

How Trump blew Republican chances

As 2016 begins, Republicans confront two challenges that are as familiar as they are profound. First, they remain an essentially all-white party in an increasingly multiracial nation. Second, the party’s economic platform — cut taxes for the wealthiest and everything will somehow work out — long ago lost its purchase on public opinion.　After a year or so of vigorous presidential campaigning, the party has made no progress whatsoever bringing its economic fantasy into alignment with the real worl

Jan. 5, 2016