[Robert J. Fouser] Yes, deterrence is the best defense

In October 2020, the world was still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. The more contagious delta strain was spreading, and fear was ever-present. Positive news from vaccine trials offered some hope that illness and death would be reduced and that the world would soon return to normal. By 2022, the pandemic had subsided, but normal did not return as Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, igniting the bloodiest war in Europe since the end of World War II in 1945. A series of surprise

Oct. 20, 2023

[Nadav Ziv] Hamas’ barbarity broke my heart

Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, I’ve stumbled between nausea, anger, grief and numbness. The barbarity inches closer. My sister’s classmate from high school lost a family member. My cousin’s best friend lost her brother. A student who graduated from my high school last year is missing. My Facebook feed alternates between pleas for information and funeral announcements. Picture after picture. Grandchildren and grandparents. Youthful smiles and serene wisdom. Hav

Oct. 19, 2023

[Wang Son-taek] Civilized state differs from terrorist group

On Oct. 7, the Middle East became a sea of blood and tears again. The Palestinian militant Hamas group launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing more than 1,400 Israeli soldiers and civilians. Israel has retaliated, killing more than 3,000 Palestinians, including Hamas members. Almost a million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip became refugees as Israel announced evacuation warnings before a full-scale ground operation. Many would agree that Hamas' surprise attack is a criminal act again

Oct. 19, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] What does it mean to be a 'strong man?'

When people meet for the first time in English speaking countries, they usually ask, “What do you do for a living?” In South Korea, by comparison, people habitually ask, “Where is your hometown?” because Koreans are strongly attached to their hometowns. If one party shares a hometown with the other party, the two may immediately become good friends. As for me, I do not have any particular attachment to my hometown because I have lived in so many places all throughout my l

Oct. 18, 2023

[Doyle McManus] Israel’s goal in Gaza is regime change

Ever since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel has waged an intermittent but limited military campaign to keep a lid on the violent Palestinian faction. Hamas fired missiles at Israeli cities, Israel bombed Gaza from the air or attacked on the ground, then negotiated a cease-fire. The goal was never to remove Hamas; that appeared too costly. It was merely to keep it under control. Israeli military officers gave their recurring Gaza offensives a sad, cynical name: "mowing

Oct. 18, 2023

[Hal Brands] Four myths exposed by Hamas attack

The horror unleashed by Hamas is only beginning. A terrorist group that killed at least 1,200 people in Israel last weekend is now endangering countless Palestinian lives, through its cynical practice of putting military capabilities in hospitals, schools and dense urban areas. But if shocks like the one Israel suffered have any upside, it’s that they expose the sloppy thinking that allowed them to happen in the first place. This attack highlights four intellectual failures in the recent a

Oct. 17, 2023

[Robin Abcarian] Claudia Goldin's answers to gender wage gap

An American woman has won the Nobel Prize in economics for her work studying the economic lives of American women. How poetic is that? No less poetic: Harvard professor Claudia Goldin, 77, is the only woman ever to have received the award by herself, with no (male) collaborators. In her work, Goldin has tried to explain why the wage gap between men and women has persisted, and why women so often are discouraged when it comes to pursuing more advanced job opportunities. "Women are now more

Oct. 17, 2023

[Andreas Kluth] US must stand with Israel, Ukraine

Almost without exception, lawmakers from both parties in Congress are eager to give Israel whatever it asks, from missiles to dollars. And that is as it should be, for Israel just became the victim of unspeakable barbarity and now needs stalwart support. But in the very next breath, some of those same US legislators, mainly Republican extremists in the House who are beholden to former President Donald Trump, want to deny Ukraine what that beleaguered country needs to survive as a nation. These M

Oct. 16, 2023

[Peter Singer] The spiral of violence that led to Hamas

Hamas’s brazen and vicious attacks within Israel have rightly drawn condemnation from around the world. If this is a war, as both sides agree it is, then Hamas’s deliberate targeting of civilians counts as a major war crime. But the brutality demonstrated by Hamas did not emerge in a vacuum. The lesson of what is currently happening in Israel and Gaza is that violence breeds more violence. The last real chance of avoiding the tragic conflict being waged between Israel and Hamas was d

Oct. 13, 2023

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] What pandemic preparedness would look like

Humanity was caught off guard by the COVID-19 pandemic, even though we had effectively been warned by smaller-scale outbreaks -- of SARS, Ebola, MERS and bird flu -- for decades. US President Barack Obama, recognizing the true nature of the threat infectious diseases might pose, even created a Global Health Security and Biodefense unit within the National Security Council. But Donald Trump, in his infinite wisdom, shut it down. Given the strong odds that we will face another pandemic sooner or l

Oct. 12, 2023

[Elizabeth Shackelford] Politics harming US national security

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

Oct. 11, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] Friendly advice from foreign experts who love Korea

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

Oct. 11, 2023

[Svenja Schulze, Christina Chilimba] Investing in gender equality

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

Oct. 10, 2023

[Contribution] Police solidarity and cooperation against public security uncertainties

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

Oct. 9, 2023

[Trudy Rubin] Milley's warning in MAGA madness

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

Oct. 9, 2023

[Daniel DePetris] Europe will prove more crucial in Ukraine war

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’

Oct. 9, 2023

[Robert J. Fouser] ‘Global English’ in 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

Oct. 6, 2023

[F.D. Flam] Don't worry about global population

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

Oct. 5, 2023

[Wang Son-taek] Korea-US alliance 70 years: Opportunities and challenges

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

Oct. 5, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] House of straws, sticks, or bricks

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

Oct. 4, 2023