Americans go to the polls today to choose a president and a direction for the country to take over the next four years. As always, given the indomitable optimism of Americans, voters are hoping that one party or the other will be given the mandate to solve the major problems of the day. Whoever wins… Continue reading Election Day Hangover
North Korean Surprises U.S. pundits and policymakers routinely label North Korea “unpredictable.” Yes, Pyongyang has sprung a number of surprises on the world. It launched a rocket over Japan in 1998. It pursued a secret uranium enrichment program. It has sent boats and submarines on mysterious missions to South Korea and Japan. But once you… Continue reading North Korean Surprises
China has come a long way since 1989. Its expanding economy is the envy of the world and the engine of growth in East Asia. Entry to the lucrative China market is sought by businesses competing ferociously worldwide. Internationally, Beijing has also been playing a larger and more constructive role, as in its mediation in… Continue reading China: It’s the Money, not Tiananmen, that Counts
It happened nearly 25 years ago, but the old woman’s grief was still raw. We were queued up to lay flowers on the ceremonial table with its pyramids of fruit and platters of pounded rice cake. At the head of the line was a group of victims’ mothers, clad in white. Each lay a single… Continue reading The Spirit of Kwangju
It looked like they were giving away food. The crowd was practically euphoric at the recent opening of Costco’s third Tokyo-area store along the bay in Yokohama. The aisles were filled with shoppers who marveled at the almost cartoonish quantities of produce and formed polite lines in front of the more popular food samples. Customers… Continue reading Super-Size Me, Tokyo Style
There is no Vaclav Havel of North Korea. Don’t expect to turn up a Solidarity-like trade union or a Democracy Wall movement on your next visit to Pyongyang. Nor, as far as anyone can tell, is a North Korean version of Boris Yeltsin or even Mikhail Gorbachev waiting in the wings to shake up the… Continue reading Next Stop: Pyongyang
The transatlantic brawl between the United States and Europe over genetically modified (GM) food is attracting much of the media’s interest. Billions of dollars in sales, the genetic fate of food crops, and the future safety of human beings hinge on this debate between skeptical Europeans and American technophiles. But it is in Asia that… Continue reading Asia Holds the Key to the Future of GM Food
The Crime of Conflict Resolution Conflict resolution professionals routinely intervene in bloody, horrific wars and, by talking to all sides involved, try to guide the actors toward a more peaceful conclusion. Sounds like noble work, right? Not always, according to the USA PATRIOT Act. This sweeping assault on civil liberties – approved just after… Continue reading Who’s a Terrorist?
Alternet, September 25, 2004
You can lead two parties to a negotiating table, but you can’t make them compromise. As the United States and North Korea head into six-party negotiations this week, both countries find themselves boxed into a diplomatic corner. These hardening positions make a robust agreement unlikely even though such a deal is in the long-term… Continue reading U.S. must abandon hard-line stance in talks with North Korea
It’s all about you. Your mid-afternoon candy bars. Your wallowing in all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets like a pig in mud. Your inability to just say no to that supersized French Fries, that Massive Gulp of soda, that waste paper basket full of popcorn at the gigaplex. The personal responsibility movement, which has brought us… Continue reading Fat Chance
Call it the “wooing and booing” strategy. Washington is reaching out to Beijing on such issues as North Korea’s nuclear program and the “war on terrorism.” At the same time, the Bush administration is blaming China for America’s trade deficit and gearing up to slam Beijing on human rights at the United Nations next… Continue reading Washington Woos and Boos Beijing
Taiwan and South Korea share a good deal in common. They both suffered under Japanese colonialism. They both built prosperous economies within the space of only a couple generations. They are both relatively new to democracy, having shrugged off authoritarian dictatorships within the last 15 years. They rely on U.S. weapons and military guarantees. And… Continue reading No Politics as Usual in East Asia
Gulliver and the Lilliputians Superpowers don’t like multilateralism. They fear that smaller countries will gang up to tie their hands, as the tiny Lilliputians bound mighty Gulliver in the famous novel. In the last four years, the U.S. Gulliver has defied the Lilliputians and projected an unprecedented amount of unilateral power – military,… Continue reading Gulliver and the Lilliputians
Pushing Arms John Feffer Secretary of State Colin Powell okayed the arms deal with one finger. It was late February at a press conference in Washington to unveil the State Department’s new D-Trade, a paperless process for granting licenses to military contractors. After joking that the State Department had only recently junked its last… Continue reading U.S. Pushing Arms
“Push and Pull: East Asian Regional Security” Advocacy Days presentation, March 6, 2004 The current crisis over North Korea’s nuclear program takes place within a regional security context with an important push factor (U.S. military policy toward the region) and an equally important pull factor (a “revolution in Asian military affairs”). The… Continue reading Push and Pull: East Asian Regional Security
Grapes, not Golf Boris Fras is the Jose Bove of Slovenia. He hasn’t attacked any McDonalds with sledgehammers. Nor has he made it into the headlines for destroying genetically modified crops. But in his vineyards and among his olive trees along the Adriatic Coast, Boris Fras is waging the same battle as his farming… Continue reading Grapes, Not Golf
Photo spreads of supersized weapons, sidebars of eye-popping stats, and prose of pumped-up power: What is happening to popular science magazines? It’s not quite hardcore, like the descriptions of raw, sweaty military ops in Soldier of Fortune or the Marines’ in-house organ, Leatherneck. The science magazines have more of a soft-core vibe. Over the last… Continue reading The Military Industrial Porn Complex
FPIF, October 24, 2004
FPIF, June 21, 2004
FPIF, April 30, 2004
FPIF, February 27, 2004
ZNet, February 16, 2004
Backing both the favorite and the underdog in a boxing match might win points for evenhandedness, but it would leave sports fans scratching their heads. In the battle of affections between China and Taiwan, though, the Bush administration has done just that. Both countries have been led to believe that they are enjoying the best… Continue reading One China, Two Headaches
World Policy Journal, Fall 2004
Vegetarian Times, April 2004
Vegetarian Times, February 2004
American Prospect, February 14, 2004 The Bush administration has been at times dangerously ambiguous in its policy toward North Korea. With a second round of six-party talks likely for early 2004 and North Korea’s nuclear program chugging along, the upcoming debate on Capitol Hill over a new bill, the North Korea Freedom Act, may well… Continue reading Second Act
“Regime Change in North Korea?” ZNet, December 25, 2003 Terrorist Potatoes, TomPaine, December 2003 “North Korea: a Different Kind of Regime Change,” Global Beat Syndicate, December 2, 2003 “Two Cheers for Realpolitik,” TomPaine.com, November 24, 2003 “Fields of Battle,” TomPaine.com, October 27, 2003 “The Peculiar Pragmatism of Pyongyang,” The Progressive, October 2003 “Wish List,” The American Prospect On-Line, October… Continue reading 2003 Archives