By now it’s clear that the U.S.’s new policy toward Syria ― we use the word “new” advisedly ― remains unclear. The question is what President Barack Obama is willing to do about it. A month ago, the administration announced it would begin training and arming opposition fighters in Syria. Now it emerges that this aid hasn’t yet hit the ground, and when it does, it will involve only small arms in uncertain quantities. What exactly is the administration’s policy here? If the goal is to roll back th

Viewpoints July 18, 2013

Japanese people can be surprisingly vague when stating their opinions. This can be seen either as a practical way to handle difficult topics without offending the other person or a way of avoiding humiliation.Questioned on his attitude toward Japan’s past, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to be ambiguous by employing aimai, literally a doubled-edged approach.He complains that part of Japan’s history has been made a diplomatic issue, willfully ignoring the fact that Japan’s militarist

Viewpoints July 18, 2013

There is an irony to the sell-off in emerging markets recently. It is the result of a rare dose of uplifting news from the developed world ― the U.S. economy is showing enough strength to prompt the Federal Reserve to signal a paring back of its quantitative easing program.In tumultuous times such as these we must look at the economic fundamentals to separate the “signal” from the “noise.” The key question today is: Are the emerging markets fundamentally broken, or is this a brief phase in which

Viewpoints July 18, 2013

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has announced that foreign direct investment pledged to the nation in the first half of the year reached $8 billion, up 12.5 percent on-year and a record high for the January-June period.The ministry played up the data, saying that FDI pledges to Korea increased despite unfavorable factors. Yet the actual amount of FDI that arrived here in the first half was tallied at $4.4 billion, down 9.3 percent from a year ago. This suggests that the sharp increase

Editorial July 17, 2013

A series of insulting remarks made by opposition lawmakers against President Park Geun-hye and her father, the late President Park Chung-hee, has roiled the political climate.Last week, Rep. Hong Ik-pyo of the main opposition Democratic Party dumbfounded many by calling the former president “a baby born to a ghost.” What he meant by the creepy description was that the late president ― and by extension his daughter ― should not have been born. He also lashed out at the junior Park for attempting

Editorial July 17, 2013

From the start, it was a world-class piece of political theater.The recent massive demonstrations involving millions of Egyptians are said to have persuaded the Egyptian military to throw President Mohammed Morsi out of office. Actually, however, military and opposition leaders along with government and business officials appear to have planned all of it in advance.What better evidence could there be than the sudden, overnight resolution of several major problems that infuriated millions of Egyp

Viewpoints July 17, 2013

STANFORD ― Negotiations have now commenced between the United States and the European Union on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), potentially the largest regional free-trade agreement in history. If successful, it would cover more than 40 percent of global GDP and account for large shares of world trade and foreign direct investment. The U.S. and EU have set an ambitious goal of completing negotiations by the end of 2014. Historically, however, most trade agreements have

Viewpoints July 17, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin is normally trolling the global media at this time of year by posing shirtless and engaging in various camera-friendly summer sports like swimming and fishing. But this summer, he’s being out-trolled and is stuck answering questions about an entitled American twerp living in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.Secret-leaking former NSA contractor Edward Snowden recently attended a press conference inside the airport’s transit zone and indicated that he would seek asylu

Viewpoints July 17, 2013

Apparently in the belief that policy coordination would be key to her successful governance during the next five years, President Park Geun-hye revived the post of vice prime minister for economic affairs upon her inauguration. She appointed Hyun Oh-seok, a long-term bureaucrat, to the post and had him double as finance minister.But it is not easy to push for policy coordination among government agencies, because a policy initiative tends to produce winners and losers. No agency in their right m

Editorial July 16, 2013

Kim Kyou-hyun, first vice foreign minister, is set to visit Tokyo on Wednesday. He is returning the Seoul visit by his counterpart, Akitaka Saiki, last week.Normally, the exchange of visits by South Korean and Japanese vice foreign ministers would not draw much public attention. But this time it does, because it may turn out to be the first step toward fence-mending.South Korean-Japanese relations have deteriorated since Shinzo Abe, a right-wing historical revisionist, was inaugurated as Japan’s

Editorial July 16, 2013

The news that China’s gross domestic product grew 7.5 percent from April to June ― down from 7.7 percent in the first quarter ― has provoked fewer gasps of horror than one might have expected. Chinese officials have been talking down the importance of the number for days. The mainland economy might ultimately grow 7 percent this year instead of at its usual double-digit rate, they’ve hinted. Nothing to worry about. These officials, from Prime Minister Li Keqiang on down, are speaking to two audi

Viewpoints July 16, 2013