China, US Domestic Policy
The aging leader wanted to shake up his country, so he launched a second revolution with the help of a cadre of young people. Drunk with power, the leader targeted his enemies, remade his political party, and turned his own government into a self-destructing circus. Anyone with real expertise was sent far away from the… Continue reading The Trump-Musk Cultural Revolution
US Foreign Policy
“They are coming to replace us.” It sounds like the tagline of a horror movie. And indeed, what the far right whispers into ears, chants at hate-filled rallies, and translates into odious legislation in white-majority countries is very much a horror movie in that it is both scary and untrue. In country after country, the… Continue reading Trump to Gaza: We Will Replace You
US Foreign Policy
Going into 2025, the world was already pretty scary. Take your pick: climate change, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, pandemic, Elon Musk. But in two short weeks, the current occupant of the White House has made life scarier still for specific communities of people. The Trump administration has already taken into custody thousands of undocumented immigrants… Continue reading Trump’s Scare Tactics
US Domestic Policy
Donald Trump cares little about democracy, except in the most utilitarian sense. For Trump, democracy is a ladder that he can use to ascend to power. He is not interested in promoting democracy abroad or strengthening democracy at home. He cares only about power: corporate, presidential, national. Before Trump, presidents frequently promoted U.S. democracy overseas,… Continue reading The End of American Democracy?
US Domestic Policy
A storm system is gathering off the coast of Maryland and is set to make landfall on January 20. Those of a more optimistic bent predict that the storm, puffed up by hot air, will dissipate considerably when it hits the shore. The rest of us are in full disaster preparation mode. Past experience, after… Continue reading America’s Homegrown Superstorm
Korea
Democracy isn’t doing so well around the world. One poignant sign of democracy’s decline is that it’s cherished most fervently in places where it effectively doesn’t exist— in Venezuela, for example, among voters protesting a stolen election. In existing democracies, meanwhile, voters don’t hold their defining political institutions in high regard. In the United States,… Continue reading The Global Significance of South Korea’s Leadership Crisis
Book Reviews, Korea
In the late 1990s, at the request of five South Korean organizations, I put together a conflict resolution training program in Seoul. The groups were interested in learning more about nonviolent ways of resolving disputes in the community, at a national level, and across borders. Another aim of the program was to explore ways for… Continue reading The Transformation of Korean Civil Society
US Domestic Policy, US Foreign Policy
Liberals hate Trump, no question about it. He’s the definition of illiberal: authoritarian, racist, sexist, and downright nasty. Not only that, he’s a living repudiation of the liberal delusion that America runs on meritocracy. But you want to know a dirty, little secret? In back alleys, encrypted group chats, and off-the-record conversations, liberals will still… Continue reading Why Liberals Will Give Two Cheers for Trump
Russia and Eastern Europe
Wars can end practically overnight. Just look at Syria, which was locked in a civil war for a dozen years. Having survived a succession of uprisings, Bashar al-Assad seemed on track to become a tyrant for life. Then, in the space of a couple weeks, his allies effectively deserted him, his army melted away, and… Continue reading Assad Gone, Trump Coming: What is Ukraine’s Future
Environment
The industrial revolution depended on fossil fuels. The current transition to clean energy aims to leave coal, oil, and natural gas behind. But this transition is also heavily dependent on critical metals like copper, lithium, and nickel. It’s also not clear whether the earth contains enough of these metals to support all the solar installations,… Continue reading Can Recycling Save the Clean Energy Revolution
US Domestic Policy
Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election was surprising in a number of ways. He won every swing state as well as the popular vote, which a Republican candidate hadn’t done in two decades. He led his party to a congressional sweep, with the Republicans maintaining control of the House of Representatives and seizing… Continue reading Surviving the New Trump Era
US Foreign Policy
Donald Trump’s presidential win is a vivid refutation of two adages: cheaters never prosper, and might doesn’t make right. These are not just comforting words that parents say to their bullied children. They are, or at least ought to be, the letter of the law. From community ordinances all the way up to international agreements,… Continue reading Planet of Bullies
US Domestic Policy
In Philadelphia this past weekend, I met a number of people who’d given up on democracy. They railed about politicians who make promises they don’t keep. They spun conspiracy theories about the government. A number of those who answered the door told me that they weren’t going to vote. Then there were the grim young… Continue reading The Plot Against Democracy
Korea
Twenty years ago, when I first heard about “dog poop girl,” I thought, “Well, that’s just South Korea.” In 2005, a young woman took her dog onto the Seoul metro where it promptly did its business. The owner refused to pick up after it. She was scolded by her fellow passengers. In an earlier age,… Continue reading The Cruelty of Crowds
US Domestic Policy
The richest man in the world is trying to buy the U.S. presidential election in order to bestow it, like a burnt offering, upon his preferred candidate. Multi-billionaire Elon Musk is not only pouring $75 million of his own money into Donald Trump’s campaign. He is now offering payments to voters in swing states in… Continue reading Billionaires vs Democracy
Korea
The dream of Korean reunification is now over 80 years old. This year, the notion that the two halves of the Korean peninsula could be stitched back together has become so feeble that it entered hospice. The children of this dream of reunification are responsible for putting it into the intensive care ward. The northern… Continue reading The End of Reunification?
Environment, Europe
No one wants a nuclear reactor in their backyard. It’s an eyesore and a health hazard, not to mention the hit to your property values. And don’t forget the existential danger. One small miscalculation and boom, there goes the neighborhood! In the 1970s, in the southwest corner of Germany, the tiny community of Wyhl was… Continue reading Getting from NIMBY to YIMBY
US Foreign Policy
Israel has assassinated the leader of Hezbollah and killed many of its members by way of booby-trapped pagers and walky-talkies. After a blitzkrieg bombing campaign, Israel once again invaded Lebanon this week to escalate its campaign against the paramilitary-cum-political party. Meanwhile, it continues to wage war against Hamas in Gaza. It has bombed various locations… Continue reading Target: Iran
Human Rights
The immigrants were arriving on children’s bicycles and sometimes even in wheelchairs. According to Norwegian law, immigrants couldn’t cross the border by foot. So, in 2015, they were traveling from Russia to the far north of Norway on any conveyance they could find. It was an odd choice of a place to cross into the… Continue reading Weaponization of Immigrants
Human Rights
The numbers are clear. The temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in November last year resulted in the release of 109 hostages. Compare that to Israeli military operations, which have managed to rescue 8 hostages while killing three by accident. The military has also recovered the bodies of another 34 hostages, including six killed shortly… Continue reading A Ceasefire Is Not Enough in Gaza
Europe
For the first time since the end of World War II, a far-right party has won a state election in Germany. This most recent success for the Alternative for Germany (AfD)—it won one-third of the votes in the eastern state of Thuringia—has generated a swirl of questions both inside and outside the country, such as:… Continue reading What the Heck Is Going on in Germany?
In one country, the increasingly autocratic leader of 15 years has up and left after being forced out of power by a student-led opposition. In the other country, the increasingly autocratic leader of 11 years has refused to give up power in the face of protests after he rigged recent elections to give himself a… Continue reading When Do Autocrats Give Up?
They were all buddy-buddy for the cameras, going for a joy ride in a deluxe limo and toasting each other at a gala dinner. In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was determined to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin in grand style on his first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years. A red carpet, flowers,… Continue reading Revenge of the Sovereignistas
Cynics and conspiracy theorists believe that everything is planned behind the scenes. They think that an assassination, even if it seems to be the work of a crazed loner, is actually stage-managed by a cabal. An accidental fire is no accident. Nothing is ever a surprise. But there have been three major surprises related to… Continue reading Electoral Surprises
US Foreign Policy
Approaching the consequential elections of 2024, the United States faces a stark debate over the role of the country in international affairs. The media has generally presented the two positions as the internationalism of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris versus the isolationism of Donald Trump. The current team in the White House touts the importance… Continue reading The Double Crisis of U.S. Foreign Policy
The conventional Artificial Intelligence doomsday scenario runs like this. A robot acquires sentience and decides for some reason that it wants to rule the world. It hacks into computer systems to shut down everything from banking and hospitals to nuclear power. Or it takes over a factory to produce a million copies of itself to… Continue reading AI Might Kill Us All, But Not the Way You Think
Russia and Eastern Europe
The Right is resurgent! The Left is Back! The Center is on the march! It’s always tempting to declare, on the basis of a few elections, that a political tendency is on the ascendant. I should know: I’ve done it myself. But the only commonality in the most recent consequential elections—France, the UK, and Iran—is… Continue reading What Do Voters Want?
Korea, Russia and Eastern Europe
The recent meeting of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in North Korea marks a new stage not only in their alliance but in their ideological convergence. This is no mere marriage of convenience. The two leaders have become so much closer in their political and economic sympathies over the last two decades that they… Continue reading Putin and Kim: A New World Order?
Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe
Poland is supposed to be one of the politically sane places in Europe right now. The far-right Law and Justice Party lost national elections last year to a centrist coalition and exited power after eight long years of democratic repression. Donald Tusk, who’d previously been the president of the European Council, once again became the… Continue reading You Think Trump Is Bad?
