Academic freedom is universally recognized and constitutionally protected here like the precious freedom of expression and the freedom of movement. Then what about an academic paper on the World War II “comfort women” written by a Harvard University professor, who defined them as “willing prostitutes who carefully negotiated the terms of their contracts.” Whenever there arises controversy over the past and present plights of those old Korean women who were sexually abuse

People say that there are two contrasting types of personalities in the world. One is the Hamlet personality type and the other resembles Don Quixote. The Hamlet type is the one who is lost in thought and discreet, and thus gives in to vacillation. The Don Quixote type is foolhardy and indiscreet, and thus brash and unbridled. Both have upsides and downsides, depending on the situation. Indeed, there are times when you should be discreet like Hamlet and there are times when you should act audaci

Earlier this month President Joe Biden went to the State Department to pump up a demoralized foreign service corps, and to tell the world, “America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.” That pledge was echoed Tuesday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told NPR, “We’ve reengaged with allies and partners around the world. I think I’ve made myself maybe 50 calls already.” So there’s no doubt the Biden approach is diametri

Nord Stream 2, the almost-finished pipeline running directly from Russia to Germany, is not really about securing cheap natural gas. It is about personal gain and these two countries’ national interest. The pipeline across the Baltic has pitted the United States and the European Union against Germany, and a swelling chorus of domestic critics against Chancellor Angela Merkel. If it were just a matter of gas molecules, the project might never have seen the light of day. So, why did it? Go

When the European Union’s foreign ministers convene on Feb. 22, they will have to confront the political fallout from the ill-fated visit to Moscow by Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. One hopes that the reckoning catalyzes much-needed progress toward developing a coherent European Russia policy. The timing of Borrell’s visit to Moscow -- the first by an EU official since 2017 – was odd, to say the least. In the weeks be

When Joe Biden launched his campaign for the presidency in 2019, his economic proposals were relatively modest updates of the middle-class-oriented agenda he championed as vice president under Barack Obama. “It doesn’t require some fundamental shift,” he said, pushing against the sweeping proposals of rivals like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Then came the pandemic. Today, Biden’s economic message, retooled to address current needs, has real urgency. “We c

Last September, five international labor auditing firms declared they could no longer help companies audit their supply chains in China’s Xinjiang region because the Chinese government’s controls and repression made it too difficult to determine whether factories are using forced labor. The Better Cotton Initiative, a consortium to monitor sustainability -- affiliated with companies such as Adidas, Nike and Gap -- called Xinjiang an “untenable operating environment.” Thi