[Andrew Yeo] Optimistic view of US-Korea alliance

As the dust settles from the 2024 US elections, many US allies and partners, including South Korea, are wondering what happens next as Donald Trump returns to the White House in January. As with any democratic transition, uncertainty exists as a new leader enters office. But this is not any leader. This is former US President Donald Trump who speaks about dictators in friendly terms, demands up to 20 percent tariff increases from US trading partners and openly criticizes security alliances. US a

Nov. 18, 2024

[Lee Kyong-hee] Kim Min-gi: A tribute to a humble legend

Kim Min-gi never imagined that a song with only eight lines would change his life forever. It was 1970. A freshman art major, Kim loved playing guitar and writing songs between painting. One summer morning, a stroll through a graveyard near his workroom inspired him to compose his short verse. He named it "Morning Dew” (Achim Iseul). Soon, completely unintended consequences overwhelmed him. By the standards of Korean popular music at the time, the song was stunningly innovative. Its p

Nov. 18, 2024

[Robert J. Fouser] Dealing with Trump’s comeback

The results of last week’s US presidential election shocked much of the world. Ahead of the vote, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris appeared tied, but Trump ended up winning by a comfortable margin, both in the popular vote and the Electoral College. Anger over inflation and a desire for change were too much for Harris to overcome in her short campaign. Republicans also took the majority in the Senate and narrowly held their majority in the House of Representat

Nov. 15, 2024

[James Zarsadiaz] Asian American vote this year

The United States 2024 election results make clear: The Asian American electorate has shifted further right. The trend portends a new future for this voting bloc that bodes well for the Republican Party. And it has been brewing for years. Asian Americans did back Kamala Harris, who received 54 percent of their vote, according to Edison Research exit polls conducted with a consortium of news organizations. Yet the 39 percent who supported Donald Trump -- despite Harris’ South Asian backgrou

Nov. 14, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Some lessons from the 2024 US election

It's been a week since the world learned that Donald Trump would return to the White House. For many around the globe, this news brought a wave of shock and concern. His comeback has stirred a mixture of fascination and apprehension, as people brace for potential disruptions and shifts his leadership might bring. Many of us, myself included, made assumptions about this election that didn’t align with reality. Now, as we reflect on the unexpected outcome, it’s time to capture the

Nov. 14, 2024

[Mark Gongloff] Trump 2.0 not hopeless for climate

In poll after poll, Americans say they care about climate change. But then again, they also say they care about democracy, women’s rights and other such ideals. And yet for the second time in three elections, they have chosen to give ultimate political power to someone loudly and diametrically opposed to them. For the climate, the best we can hope is that the aftermath of the 2024 election will remain just short of catastrophic. The progress made by President Joe Biden is significant and i

Nov. 13, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] The world according to Trump

Once again, Americans have elected Donald Trump as the leader of their country for the next four years. As the New York Times headline said, “his comeback victory signals a different kind of country” and it seems that Americans still want change. The world is now watching the deja vu while pondering the future of America and its allies. Supporters of Trump must be joyous because they believe that Trump will "make America great again” by banning undocumented immigrants,

Nov. 13, 2024

[Lim Woong] AI and keeping humans in the loop

I teach graduate courses about AI and mathematics education, and my students -- mostly working professionals -- often express concerns about their future, not the distant future but the next two or three years: "Is AI going to take over my job?" Especially when some AI tools already seem to outperform their best work, it is quite a valid worry. My response is that while AI might make some jobs obsolete, it will also create new opportunities, such as AI device designers, AI ethics speci

Nov. 12, 2024

[Grace Kao] Approved songs for the CSAT

On Nov. 14, 2024, the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test will be administered in Korea. Approximately 522,000 Korean high school students will take the day-long exam, and their results will determine their college placement and career paths. It’s a national event where additional police are sent to test sites to direct traffic, and air traffic control limits aircraft takeoff and landing around 1 p.m., so as to not distract students during the English listening comprehension part of the

Nov. 12, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Would you buy South Korea?

It is always heartwarming to meet a close friend after a long time. I experienced such a joyful moment last week when I reunited with a former colleague I had worked with at the same company, in the same area of macroeconomic reporting, after many years, during his visit to Seoul for a holiday. We discussed many topics, ranging from our daily lives since leaving the company several years ago to our thoughts on the outcome of the US presidential election -- which had been decided just hours befor

Nov. 11, 2024

[Contribution] APEC, passing the baton to Korea

On Nov. 16, President Yoon Suk Yeol will participate in the APEC Leaders' Summit in Lima, coinciding with his official visit to Peru. This is a significant occasion as Korea will assume the presidency of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation for 2025, a forum which serves as the primary platform for economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Over the past 35 years, APEC has effectively promoted trade and investment integration in the world's most dynamic economic region, which curren

Nov. 8, 2024

[Lee Byung-jong] US presidential election and Korea

Now that the US presidential election is over, with former President Trump’s victory, it may be time to review the heated and divisive campaigns of the election, along with its close resemblance to South Korea’s polarized politics. Perhaps because Korea borrowed its political system from the US at the time of its inception, there are alarming similarities between the two countries’ politics, notably during elections. It is alarming because the bitter and destructive nature of t

Nov. 8, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Ten moments in the 2024 US election

The US presidential election is crucial for American voters and also significant for global citizens, influencing worldwide security, economic order and diplomatic trends. This election, however, stands out as one of the most dynamic and consequential in US history. Here, we recount 10 pivotal moments that shaped the election and underscored the importance of women's role in politics. 1. Debate between Biden and Trump (June) The election's first decisive moment was the early TV debat

Nov. 7, 2024

[Antara Haldar] Why do countries prosper?

Each fall, a telephone call from Stockholm launches one or a few scholars to international fame with the bestowal of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences -- a process that Irving Wallace dramatized in his 1962 potboiler The Prize. This year, the call went to three figures who are already well-known, the economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the political scientist James A. Robinson of the University of Chicago. The three were recog

Nov. 7, 2024

[Daniel DePetris] Is there really an ‘axis of evil’?

If we didn’t know any better, we might flip through the newspaper and conclude that the international order the United States helped construct after World War II was coming apart. We might also be led to believe that four countries, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, are not only contributing to its demise but also forming an alliance to destroy the so-called rules-based order that senior US officials crow about. Since the war in Ukraine erupted in February 2022, US foreign policy expert

Nov. 6, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Traveling on the Silk Road for the Golden Fleece

The worst tragedies of human history tend to arise from our too-rigid notions of binary oppositions and our hatred of the other. The antagonisms between the East and the West, Christianity and Islam, or capitalism and communism are good examples. History shows us that the atrocities of wars, massacres and genocides are done in the name of God, the righteousness of pure ideology or delusions of racial supremacy. Recently, I came across a riveting book of poems by the renowned Korean poet Oh Sae-y

Nov. 6, 2024

[Catherine Thorbecke] Indonesia’s iPhone 16 ban

Even the world’s fourth most-populous country, which has more active cellphones than people, seems to be no match for Apple. Indonesia’s ban on the sale of iPhone 16s after the company failed to meet local investment requirements didn’t faze investors. Shares of the world’s most-valuable company were largely unchanged by the news, which makes sense given the smaller footprint it has in the emerging market. And the deck was already unevenly stacked: Indonesia’s entir

Nov. 5, 2024

[John Mark Hansen] Why is the US presidential race even close?

I teach a course at the University of Chicago on presidential elections, and I hear the same kind of question from friends on both the right and the left. The Republicans I grew up with in western Kansas cannot understand why Donald Trump is not far ahead in the polls, whereas the Democrats who surround me in Chicago wonder how it can possibly be that Kamala Harris is not running away with the race. These are the right questions for understanding contemporary US politics. For all its unusual asp

Nov. 5, 2024

[Tyler Cowen] AI's uneven effect on economy

One of the only things growing faster than progress in AI applications is speculation about AI’s effect on the economy. I don’t have all the answers, not by a long shot, but I do think we should expect great unevenness in adaptation, and that itself will alter our world. To see how this is likely to play out, start with a distinction between sectors in which it is relatively easy to go out of business, and sectors in which it is not. Most firms selling computer programming services,

Nov. 4, 2024

[Lee Kyong-hee] True blessing from Han Kang’s Nobel Prize

The news of Han Kang being awarded the Nobel Prize in literature carried me to the winter of 1970, when I started my journalism career at The Korea Times. My tasks included assisting the managing editor, who was creating the Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, the first of its kind. In considering the more than 50 years that have transpired for Korean literature -- and Korean culture at that -- it may be said that the Nobel Prize is a crowning achievement for one Korean and a watershed

Nov. 4, 2024