America’s national security depends heavily on the strength and effectiveness of our foreign policy and defense. Both are suffering self-inflicted wounds caused by our dysfunctional politics. As our political representatives can barely accomplish the most basic governing obligations, our adversaries delight, and our allies wonder if we can be counted on as reliable partners. The most blatant mess has been our government’s budget debacle. We have the world’s largest economy and

ViewpointsOct. 11, 2023

Many young foreigners these days love K-pop so much that they do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy a ticket for a K-pop concert. They are also fond of the K-movies and K-dramas streamed on Netflix. Many of them idolize K-pop singers and want to visit the country that has produced such charming and appealing pop culture. But for K-politics, things are quite the opposite. While K-pop and K-film have made South Korea proud, K-politics has been an embarrassment. Foreign experts who care ab

ViewpointsOct. 11, 2023

Despite coming from vastly different beginnings -- one of us comes from a fishing district in Malawi with one of the country’s highest adolescent pregnancy rates, the other grew up in West Germany during the height of the women’s movement -- we have both seen the transformative impact of empowering women and girls. What also unites us is the same sense of urgency for more to be done -- faster and at a bigger scale. During the first 20 years of this century, progress toward equality w

ViewpointsOct. 10, 2023

By Yoon Hee-keun Industrialization and advanced technology have driven human progress, but they can also, ironically, lead to environmental disasters and transnational dangers. An OECD report, “Emerging Risks in the 21st Century,” published in 2003, forecast that modern society would face five major risks: natural disasters, technological accidents, infectious diseases, food safety and terrorism-related risks. Twenty years later, these forecasts appear to be becoming a reality. COVID

ViewpointsOct. 9, 2023

In recent days, the country has been subjected to a chilling preview of what MAGA rule would look like if Donald Trump returns to power, as America’s allies looked on in shock while its enemies had good reason to cheer. Having failed to shut down the government, but succeeded in axing Ukraine aid, a handful of Trump acolytes on Capitol Hill set out to cripple the US government by other means. Led by MAGA Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose narcissism trumps Trump, these Republican Party hard-liners axe

ViewpointsOct. 9, 2023

After weeks of finger-pointing, rhetorical gamesmanship and intra-Republican high jinks, Congress managed to avoid a federal government shutdown over the weekend by passing a 45-day stopgap funding package. US President Joe Biden wasted no time signing it into law. For supporters of additional military aid to Ukraine, the continuing resolution was a bitter pill to swallow. Despite last-minute lobbying from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the law doesn’

ViewpointsOct. 9, 2023

International academic conferences always offer insight into the status and use of English as a global language. In late September this year, I was fortunate enough to have the chance to submit a paper at a conference on comparative punctuation organized by the University of Regensburg in Germany. For three days, scholars discussed the use of punctuation from a variety of perspectives, but papers on historical and linguistic perspectives were most common. The official language of the conference

ViewpointsOct. 6, 2023

The world’s massive human population is leveling off. Most projections show we’ll hit peak humanity in the 21st century, as people choose to have smaller families and women gain power over their own reproduction. This is great news for the future of our species. And yet alarms are sounding. While environmentalists have long warned of a planet with too many people, now some economists are warning of a future with too few. For example, economist Dean Spears from the University of Texas

ViewpointsOct. 5, 2023

The South Korea-US alliance celebrated its 70th anniversary on October 1. Exactly 70 years have passed since Korea and the United States signed the Mutual Defense Treaty on Oct. 1, 1953. The Korea-US alliance can be evaluated as a successful one for both nations. First, the alliance was a safety valve to ensure peace and stability while preventing a second Korean War on the Korean Peninsula. The Korean War was a tragedy in which about 3 million people were killed. The war was a huge hell that

ViewpointsOct. 5, 2023

Children in many countries grow up reading and listening to the famous fairytale “Three Little Pigs.” In the story, three little pigs decide to build houses of their own. The first pig builds himself a house of straw, the second little pig a house of sticks, and the third little pig a house of bricks. As we know, when the big bad wolf comes and tries to blow their houses down, both the straw house and the stick house fall down. Only the brick house endures the strong huffing and puff

ViewpointsOct. 4, 2023

You wouldn’t think that it would be that hard to kill someone. History indicates that we’ve always been good at it. It took only one generation before Cain killed Abel in a fit of jealousy over divine approbation. Murder had been invented and we’ve never looked back. In fact, we’ve only gotten better at killing. Cain must have used a club or rock on Abel, but in modern times our killing capacity has gone ballistic -- literally. We’ve invented powerful and efficient

ViewpointsSept. 28, 2023

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pressed rewind and expressed his desire for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The overture last week was the same as last year. In between, Kishida has suggested high-level talks to set up a summit and North Korea has responded promptly and positively. But it also attached a caveat. “There is no reason for the DPRK and Japan not to meet, if Tokyo is not being shackled by the past,” said the North&r

ViewpointsSept. 28, 2023