Are South Koreans generally impassive on the war in Ukraine? No way. But when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his video address appealing for South Korean help last week, a small audience turned up at the auditorium of the National Assembly library to reveal an apparent lack of interest among the representatives of this free democratic country in the bloody war started by Russia’s unprovoked ...

Day and night, images that are unwatchable yet unforgettable pour out of the great news funnels all around the planet. The images bring a flood of anguish into the lives of people who cannot bear looking at the horrific slaughter and inhumane cruelty that a superpower is inflicting upon its much smaller neighbor. But these same people also cannot bear looking away. So they watch the blatant and...

The inauguration slogan of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is “Back to the Republic of Korea.” It resonates with the Biden administration’s slogan, “America is back.” Indeed, both slogans suggest, “Back to normal” or “Back to those good old days.” Many people in Korea thought that something was not quite right for the past five years. Among other things, our political leaders seemed to be indi...

The deadline for filing federal income taxes is later than usual this year. Tax Day has been pushed back to April 18 to avoid coinciding with the District of Columbia’s Emancipation Day holiday. However, Americans don’t just pay taxes one day out of the year. Taxes are a part of our everyday lives, whether we’re conscious of it or not. Many politicians prefer that we don’t notice how much we’re ...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reminded many people of the fraught relationship between China and Taiwan. But while there are three similarities between the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan, there are also significant differences. The first similarity is that there is a very large military power gap between Taiwan and China, just as there was between Ukraine and Russia. Moreover, that gap is gr...

The gruesome scenes left behind after Russia’s withdrawal from Bucha, where Ukraine accuses Russian troops of torturing and slaughtering civilians, have intensified pressure on the West to provide more offensive weapons to Ukraine and for Europe to ban Russian energy imports. But beyond the legitimate question of Europe’s willingness to pay such a high price on Ukraine’s behalf lies the stark rea...

After two years of human devastation, the world is learning to live with COVID-19 while trying to balance the protection of public health and livelihoods. For countries in Asia and the Pacific, this is challenging not only because national coffers are heavily strained by record public spending to mitigate pandemic suffering, but also due to deeper structural economic issues. COVID-19 has expose...

When President Kim Dae-jung was in office, he was asked if he had heard a joke about Bill and Hillary Clinton: At a gas station, Hillary recognizes a high school boyfriend and later, Bill smugly says, “See, if you’d married him, you’d be working at a gas station.” Hillary replies, “If I’d married him, he’d be president.” Hearing the joke, President Kim laughed heartily. He apparently understood ...

In the first half of the 20th century, Germany was aggressive, expansionist and dangerous. Its legacy includes millions of needless war deaths and the unspeakable crimes of the Nazi regime. After 1945, however, the country changed. Chastened, defeated and shamed, Germany demilitarized at the insistence of the victorious Allies and soon adopted a constitution banning “wars of aggression.” Germans...

On April 3, Hungary’s anti-liberal, ultranationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, won a fourth term. While the West remains fixated on the war next door in Ukraine, the threat of Hungary’s continued march away from liberal democracy is coming from inside the Western house. Orban remains popular at home, but his election was not exactly free and fair. In classic authoritarian fashion, Orban has ...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is known as a political novice. Indeed, Yoon was elected president without any prior political career. Although he was prosecutor general, Yoon was not a professional politician, but a public prosecutor under the supervision of the minister of justice. However, such a background can be an advantage for him. Unlike professional politicians who have to consider many f...

We’re in Mexicantown, a neighborhood in the 27th-largest city in the USA. We’ve just had a bite to eat at Los Galanes, the restaurant we chose over Xochimilco, which is nearby. Now our car is heading south, on this fine February day, so we can drive over the bridge and across the border. Uh-oh -- we’re in a helluva traffic jam. Lots of huge trucks. Tiny cars trapped in between. No one is moving....

The fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reminded us of the unforeseeable disruptions constantly confronting the global economy. We have been taught this lesson many times. No one could have predicted the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and few anticipated the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, or Donald Trump’s election, which resulted in the United States turning toward p...

Much has changed since President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers to combat the spread of COVID-19. Immunity, whether natural or acquired through vaccines, is much more widespread, and breakthrough treatments are available. While the disease may never be completely eradicated, it’s time to return to a public health policy that prizes individual liberty over government authority. Unfortunate...

One of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign promises is to transform South Korea into a leader in STEM research. The promise follows decades of presidential efforts to promote science and technology as part of the broader economic and social development plans. Presidents have come and gone, but each effort has built on the other, leaving the country in a strong position to achieve the preside...