The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had, and is continuing to have, catastrophic consequences for many people. But Ukraine’s people are not the war’s only victims -- and many Ukrainians refuse to ignore that fact. The thousands of human casualties include more than 1,200 Ukrainian civilians killed, and many more injured. These numbers are growing each day, and the Russian retreat from around Kyi...

About a month has passed since the March 9 presidential election in South Korea, in which a former prosecutor-general who joined the main opposition party at the last minute won with a razor-thin margin. Right-wing President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol picked a former prime minister under a past leftist government to lead his first Cabinet. Han Duck-soo was chosen for his rich experience as an economic ...

In the same week that Taiwanese took to the streets to repudiate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan’s leaders rolled out the red carpet for a visit by former US President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. This is the same man who, together with Trump, withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure its government to initiate a bogus investigation into Joe Biden’s son, and who then ...

People say, “Things change.” However, “Some things never change,” as the maxim says. It is especially true in Korea. For example, as the Yoon administration is about to launch, people begin talking about the urgency of “normalizing the abnormal” that the previous Moon administration has created for the past five years. They argue that Korea’s diplomacy with China and North Korea or with Japan an...

Last week, President Joe Biden sent Congress his proposed defense budget for the next fiscal year: an $813 billion wish list, almost $60 billion more than he requested a year ago -- more military spending than any president, including Donald Trump, has requested since World War II. Once Congress approves the request -- and, in all likelihood, makes it bigger -- US defense spending will be larger...

It’s national budget time in Washington, so the conversation on Capitol Hill is focused on numbers. But an important number is being overlooked, one that affects our ability to defend ourselves. At a time when threats abroad are growing, America’s ability to recruit the volunteers needed to fully staff its armed forces is on the wane. The 2023 defense budget request just released by the Biden ad...

The solidarity on display at the recent NATO, US-EU, and G7 summits, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to wage war on Ukraine, revealed a rejuvenated West. The Atlantic democracies have responded to Russia’s invasion with impressive -- and somewhat unexpected -- unity as they arm Ukraine, reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, and sanction the Russian economy. Instead of turning away migran...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s plan to relocate the presidential office before his May 10 inauguration is abrupt and absurd. The decision, slathered in opaqueness, not only defies public opinion and risks gross overspending, it intensifies security concerns amid increasing North Korean missile tests. None of that seems to matter to Yoon, known for his bulldog mentality when he was a prosecutor....

Even in dreamland, nightmares can infiltrate. Heaven was not an exception: Lucifer rebelled against God and fell down to this mundane world. The same goes for the Garden of Eden. Due to the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel, Satan, paradise is lost. Those who voted for Yoon Suk-yeol as the next president of South Korea are now breathing a sigh of relief, saying, “The nightmare is ov...

The war in Ukraine, which just entered its second month, shows no sign of ending soon. Russia’s huge but incompetent army has been stymied in its attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other cities. Ukraine’s defenders have put up a heroic fight, but civilians in besieged towns are suffering a terrible toll. Neither army appears ready to quit. That, diplomats say, is why the chances...

Many who now worry about rising inflation in the United States may disagree, but the US Federal Reserve should take a victory lap. Just consider what the Fed has achieved over the past two years. At this time in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had pushed employment down by a massive 14 percent when large portions of the economy were forced to shut down. And although employment bounced back when the ...

Across Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has spurred a rethink of virtually all dimensions of security, from defense to energy. The war’s likely impact on security in East Asia, especially in Taiwan and Japan, has received far less attention. But the coming transformation may turn out to be just as profound. The Ukraine war, though far away, poses a substantial risk to East Asia. China is wat...

President Joe Biden and his top foreign policy advisers have demonstrated how effective diplomacy can be in a crisis. They have worked tirelessly to build a powerful, coordinated response to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Though this has not yet ended the war, it has greatly increased the cost to Putin. It has also sucked up most of the oxygen in the White House, the National Security Council ...