[James Greiff] Clean the fleece, dirty the planet

It’s getting cold. Time to break out the fleece. Warm and light, it even comes in a nice shade of green: A lot of the material used to make fleece comes from recycled plastic bottles -- better in your sweater than in a landfill.　Green that is, until you run it through the washing machine. That’s when thousands of plastic microfibers get flushed into the sewer system and on to some stream, lake, river and ocean.　In a world where greenhouse gas threatens to bake the planet, this might not seem so

Oct. 26, 2015

[Park Sang-seek] Breaking the vicious circle of inter-Korean relations

　In the declaration for her presidential bid in 2012, President Park Geun-hye said: “We should take the first step toward a new Korean peninsula by severing the vicious circle of distrust, confrontation and uncertainties between the two Koreas.” 　This is her approach to inter-Korean relations. Since independence, the Syngman Rhee and the first half of the Park Chung-hee governments took a confrontational policy, while the second half of the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan governments pursued a

Oct. 26, 2015

[David Ignatius] Asia's maritime game of chicken

The U.S. appears to be moving toward a military test of China’s claims of sovereignty in disputed areas of the South China Sea, and officials here seem pleased that President Obama is prepared to put more muscle into his famous “pivot” to Asia. 　The U.S. has been briefing Asian allies about its new readiness to assert “freedom of navigation” by sending ships within the 12-mile limits that China has placed around its newly reclaimed “islands.” Adm. John Richardson, the new chief of naval operatio

Oct. 25, 2015

[Francis Wilkinson] Hillary Clinton is Mrs. October

October has been a clarifying month. The first Democratic debate exhibited Hillary Clinton’s competence and reassured the Democratic Party elite that she remains a formidable candidate. In addition, it helped chase two also-rans -- Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee -- from the primary and appears to have breached the porous borders of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ support.This week, Vice President Joe Biden’s retreat from the field ratified Clinton’s commanding position, freeing up funds and quashing a distrac

Oct. 25, 2015

[David Ignatius] Putin aims to fulfill his mentor’s dreams

The godfather of Russia’s military intervention in Syria is Yevgeny Primakov, a former prime minister, intelligence chief and for decades his nation’s leading Arabist. A hint of Primakov’s influence on President Vladimir Putin came in the unusual eulogy that Putin delivered at his friend’s funeral in Moscow four months ago. 　“Primakov had global vision and was open and bold in his thinking,” Putin told mourners. By asserting Russia’s interests and power, Primakov “got the country through a very

Oct. 25, 2015

[Yu Kun-ha] Cutting work hours for more babies

I became a grandfather in March. My daughter, who got married two years ago, gave birth to a lovely baby boy. These days, I feel that a newborn is a blessing not just to its parents and the nation, but to its grandparents.　 Yu Kun-haMy daughter began to entrust her baby to a neighborhood care center in late August because she had to go back to work. She wanted to stay at home with her baby for a few more months, but her company insisted on her prompt return. 　My daughter’s return to work made he

Oct. 22, 2015

[Cyril Almeida] A nuclear deal for Pakistan: Need or prestige?

Cyril AlmeidaIt may be the surest of things in politics: an immediate and strong governmental denial is usually a sign that something is afoot. With Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Washington to meet U.S. President Obama in the White House on Thursday, Pakistani officials have denied that a civilian nuclear deal is being negotiated with the U.S.　In the small strategic community that works on nuclear issues in Pakistan, however, there is a general insistence that Pakistan fully merits a civilian n

Oct. 22, 2015

[Lee Sun-young] What Adler tells Koreans today

A dead Austrian psychologist known for his study of the inferiority complex is the darling of local publishers today. 　A quick search for Alfred Adler (1870-1937) at Kyobo Bookstore, the country’s largest bookseller, returns a list of at least 40 titles containing his name. If books about his theories but with no direct mention of his name in the title are included, the list would well cross 100. 　Adler, although considered one of the greatest founding influences of modern psychology along with

Oct. 21, 2015

[Howard Davies] The trouble with financial bubbles

LONDON -- Very soon after the magnitude of the 2008 financial crisis became clear, a lively debate began about whether central banks and regulators could -- and should -- have done more to head it off. The traditional view, notably shared by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, is that any attempt to prick financial bubbles in advance is doomed to failure. The most central banks can do is to clean up the mess.　Bubble-pricking may indeed choke off growth unnecessarily -- and at hi

Oct. 21, 2015

[Lee Jae-min] Elephant in the room

One common mistake in understanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is to view it as just another free trade agreement. This one is quite different.　People tend to forget the unique feature of this particular agreement: it introduces many new rules of trade, rules that will form new codes of conduct for governments and serve as a platform for future discussions in other settings.　When new rules are being discussed, waiting out has its own benefits and risks. As few can gauge the exact impact

Oct. 20, 2015

[Kim Seong-kon] Korean authors’ names in English

Recently, Koreans have been buoyed by the global surge of K-culture, covering a gamut of genres from K-pop, K-dramas and K-food. However, the true essence of Korean culture cannot be transmitted faithfully and comprehensively through popular culture alone. It is vital, therefore, that we promote K-books, the embodiment of Korean ethos and mythos, internationally. For K-books, especially K-literature, to gain ground in the global arena, it is essential that they be published overseas. In particul

Oct. 20, 2015

[Jeffrey D. Sachs] The Japan syndrome could happen to China

China is now experiencing what Japan went through a generation ago: a marked slowdown in economic growth after demands by the United States that it restrict its exports. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan was criticized by the U.S. as an “unfair trader” by virtue of its soaring manufacturing exports. The U.S. issued stern, and apparently credible, threats to restrict Japanese imports, and succeeded in pushing Japan to overvalue the yen, which helped to bring Japanese growth to a screeching

Oct. 19, 2015

[Aryeh Neier] A duty to help the refugees

I owe my life to the readiness of the British authorities to accept me as an infant refugee from Nazi Germany. My parents and I got out of Berlin in August 1939, just before the start of the war, to join my 10-year-old sister Esther, who had, along with about 10,000 other children, gone to England months earlier in what is known as the Kindertransport.　What the British did for us, the extraordinary generosity they showed refugees like me during those difficult war years, stood out. Indeed, the e

Oct. 19, 2015

[John H. Cha] Kim Jong-un’s ‘people’ bonanza

For weeks preceding Oct. 10, the 70th anniversary for the foundation of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, the media was flooded with speculations that Kim Jong-un would launch a missile into space in celebration of the occasion. The speculations were all for naught, as it turned out. 　Instead of the touted missile, Kim Jong-un launched a 25-minute speech, in which he recited the word “InMin” (meaning people) no less than 97 times. In other words, he enunciated the word about four times a minute

Oct. 18, 2015

[Shashi Tharoor] Breaking down India’s internal barriers

Of the many economic reforms crying out for immediate implementation in India, the most obvious is the long-pending Goods and Services Tax. So why have India’s politicians failed to enact it?　The need for a GST is virtually indisputable. As billionaire Steve Forbes recently wrote in his eponymous magazine, “Outsiders are amazed that much of India resembles pre-revolutionary France, with many internal barriers standing in the way of economic efficiency and growth.” He then pointed out that a GST

Oct. 18, 2015

[David Ignatius] Still searching for a strategy in Syria

A Syrian Kurdish militia that was initially seen by U.S. commanders as a sideshow has emerged as the strongest U.S.-backed force against the Islamic State -- forcing a hasty reevaluation of U.S. strategy after the collapse of a $500 million plan for training and equipping Syrian rebels.　U.S. military commanders are now recommending a “Syria First” strategy that relies on the Kurdish fighters and a smaller Arab force to move gradually toward the Islamic State’s capital of Raqqa, just 25 miles sou

Oct. 18, 2015

[Andrew Sheng] Success depends on succession

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to attend the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2015 in Kuala Lumpur on disruptive innovation. The forum brought together many amazing speakers who are at the cutting edge of innovation. The most impressive was Hugh Herr, who lost both legs to frostbite when mountain climbing.　His doctors told him that he should be resigned to limited mobility. After an initial period of despondence, he decided boldly that it was conventional medicine that was broken, not his body or

Oct. 16, 2015

[Chon Shi-yong] Nobel Prize and Koreans

Visitors to the campus of Pohang University of Science Technology in Pohang can see four busts in an open plaza -- Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, James Clerk Maxwell and Isaac Newton. 　You can easily guess why the university, better known as POSTECH and which draws the nation’s brightest science students, put up the busts. But you might have some curiosity when you see there are two more podiums, without the busts.  　The line inscribed on the empty podiums reads “Future Scientist of Korea” and

Oct. 15, 2015