In the aftermath of the ferry tragedy in which 302 passengers, most of them high school students, may have died, South Koreans have had more than one target for their rage: not only the captain and crew of the Sewol, who botched the evacuation and then abandoned ship, but, more important, the shipping company and regulators, who appear to have cut corners on safety.The test of whether South Korea has learned anything from this disaster will be whether it can finally sever the ties that have long

This country has come a long way on race. The law no longer tolerates discrimination and most institutions, public and private, have accepted diversity as the new normal.But all too often somebody stuns the nation by saying something so appallingly racist that it reveals just how far we still have to go.Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball team, is the latest example. Recordings of racist ravings from a man believed to be him in a conversation with his g

Gone too soonTo Poseidon duneThe netherworld of cold cocoons’twas the break of dawnWhen the ship’s alarmDisturbed the foggy morning calmSailing on the Sewol was your final voyageAn overloaded vessel with excess tonnageWith untrained crew devoid of courageThe helms mate lacked experiential knowledgeGuiding the vessel through a treacherous passageWith faulty steering, she could barely manageSteering the ship from its deadly wreckageYour smiles we’ll missYour memory’s a cherished blissYour future’s

MUNICH ― The euro crisis has passed through six phases so far. It is worth recalling them, because they show how policymakers stumbled along, trying to put out fires without keeping an eye on where their chosen path was leading them. Currently, markets remain calm, but this is only the beginning of a seventh phase of the crisis, during which Europe will become mired in debt. The sequence so far has been as follows:― The collapse in 2007 of the inflationary credit bubble caused by the euro’s intr

No matter what you think about last week’s Supreme Court decision blessing state bans against using race in college admissions, the ruling will have a certain outcome: More states will consider bans.Ohio, Missouri and Utah already have ballot measures teed up. Within hours of the decision, a state legislator said he would introduce one in Wisconsin. Those states would join California and seven others, with about a quarter of the U.S. population, in banning race as a consideration in college admi

LAGUNA BEACH ― There seems to be no limit to the exciting possibilities that come from combining technical innovations, the Internet, and social media. It is a phenomenon that has been revolutionizing journalism and entertainment; and, by helping to overcome coordination challenges, it has also had political consequences in a growing number of countries ― all of which means an ever-evolving set of opportunities and risks.What is less appreciated, however, is the extent to which a broadly similar

Fifteen months ago, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had chosen his room in a home for elderly Argentine priests. Like other Roman Catholic bishops who turn 75, he had submitted his retirement letter to the Vatican. Then another abdication upended his plans: Benedict XVI, his stamina fading, was the first pope in 598 years to leave by resignation, not death. On March 13, 2013, Bergoglio’s peers elected him pope on their fifth ballot.He took the papal name Francis to evoke Francis of Assisi, a 13th

President Barack Obama envisioned building a foreign-policy legacy in his second term: a nuclear deal with sanction-strapped Iran, an end to U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas, and a successful pivot to Asia, including a trans-Pacific trade pact.Fifteen months after his second inaugural, those goals look more problematic, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have created new crises. Dashed foreign-policy dreams aren’t unique to this second-term president: Dwight D. Eisenho

U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Asia raises questions within Asia on where Asia is going and how Asia should engage and embrace the West.No understanding of globalization and its impact on Asia can be complete without tracing it to the remarkable period in the 19th century, when the West used the power of the Industrial Revolution and science and technology to carve up the rest of the world into different colonies. In a remarkable book by Indian writer Pankaj Mishra, the tale of Asia’s in

I’ve watched all eight seasons of “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team,” and I’m still trying to figure out why those women do it. The dancing part looks like the sort of thing I would have enjoyed, if I had ever been the sort of person who could do a jump-split-kick without pulling, tearing or spraining something. On the other hand, the microscopic scrutiny of social media accounts, the hysteria over even an ounce of weight gain, the hours of exhausting (unpaid) athletic practice … tha