CAIRO ― From Nazi Germany to Rwanda, some of the most inhumane atrocities and genocides were committed while the rest of the world was watching. Today we are all witnessing the atrocities and mass destruction in Syria. Again we are observing it all unfold before our eyes, with heavy hearts perhaps, but no effective intervention to stop it.The regime of Bashar al-Assad is brutal. It is fighting a war with its own people, shelling them from the sea, bombing them from the air, and murdering them in

Viewpoints Dec. 2, 2012

When Shinzo Abe, the leader of Japan’s main opposition party, talks about his vision for the country’s diplomacy and security, East Asia has every reason to prick up its ears.Opinion polls in Japan suggest the Liberal Democratic Party will win the House of Representatives election on Dec. 16, positioning Abe to become the next prime minister.He was eager to show his hardline credentials when releasing his party’s campaign pledges on Wednesday, presenting himself as a tough nut to crack if he tak

Viewpoints Dec. 2, 2012

The presidential election campaign is heating up as the two major candidates ― Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party ― scramble to take an early lead in the race.The two contenders launched their official campaigns on Nov. 27 after registering their candidacy with the National Election Commission. Besides the two, five more people have thrown their hats into the ring, but their bids are unlikely to matter much.The initial campaig

Editorial Nov. 29, 2012

The government has announced that Korea’s trade volume will pass the $1 trillion milestone for a second consecutive year in 2012, overtaking Italy to become the world’s eighth largest trading nation.According to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the nation’s trade volume totaled $888.5 billion during the first 10 months of the year, with exports accounting for $455.4 billion and imports $433.1 billion. The ministry forecast the trade tally would hit $1 trillion in the middle of next month. One

Editorial Nov. 29, 2012

It may turn out that the editors of the English language edition of the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, People’s Daily, were only kidding when they ran a 55-image slideshow based on “Kim Jong-un Named The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2012.” But if it turns out that they weren’t, the explanation for how such an article ended up in China’s most important tribunal isn’t so hard to parse. In three distinct ways, the Onion’s satire was perfectly engineered to appeal to editorial biases ― some

Viewpoints Nov. 29, 2012

The Mainland Affairs Council and the Presidential Office have both stepped up and asked the PRC government to not endanger the status quo by including two pages of scenery from Taiwan, as well as a map of the PRC’s claimed territory showing dashed lines going around Taiwan’s eastern seaboard, in its new microchip passports. The dashed lines extend southward to cover a vast disputed area in the South China Sea, triggering protests from rival claimants including Vietnam, the Philippines and even I

Viewpoints Nov. 29, 2012

How should Japan achieve a stable supply of power, which is indispensable for people’s livelihoods and economic growth? Energy policies will become a major issue in the House of Representatives election to be held Dec. 16.Nuclear power policies by the ruling and opposition parties have come under the spotlight due to the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.It will be difficult to resolve many issues facing

Viewpoints Nov. 29, 2012

Ohio, the mother of all tossup states, gave its 18 electoral votes ― and with them, the White House ― to Barack Obama on Nov. 6. Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown won reelection. Yet Republicans won 12 of Ohio’s 16 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.Obama won by five points in Pennsylvania, where Democrats also swept four statewide races. But Republicans took 13 of the state’s 18 U.S. House seats.Democrats who had hoped to reclaim a majority in the House came up way short, even with

Viewpoints Nov. 28, 2012

It may be surprising to learn that, of the many maritime disputes in Asia, one of the most violent in the past few years has occurred between South Korea and China in the Yellow Sea.On Oct. 16 a 44-year-old Chinese fisherman died when hit by a rubber bullet fired by a member of the Republic of Korea Coast Guard, which had stopped a Chinese trawler fishing illegally in South Korea’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Past incidents include the death of two Chinese fishermen in December 2010, the kill

Viewpoints Nov. 28, 2012

Before scheduling any budget negotiations at the White House, on Capitol Hill or at Camp David, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders should go see Steven Spielberg’s classic new film, “Lincoln.” It’s the best movie about Washington politics I’ve seen. The centerpiece is the American icon, Abraham Lincoln; it brilliantly captures him doing what politicians are supposed to do, and today too often avoid: compromising, calculating, horse trading, dealing and preventing the perfect from b

Viewpoints Nov. 27, 2012