Syrian President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad. Together the al-Assad family reign stretches to 42 years. The Syrian political system is nominally a democratic republic. In the case of North Korea, its founder and head of the state, Kim Il-sung, has been succeeded by his son, and his son by his grandson over 62 years. But Syria and North Korea are neither the same kind of political system nor a traditional monarchy. A question arises: Why is this kind of power succession c

NEW YORK ― The last-minute agreement between Russia and the United States to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control gives the West, which had run out of good options, a second chance to reach what always should have been its strategic goal: peace in Syria and an end to its people’s suffering.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took advantage of Western leaders’ failure to formulate a clear central objective. Did they hope to end Syria’s civil war by forcing a military stalem

WASHINGTON ― A high-level defector has provided a disturbing new account of Syrian chemical weapons operations ― including an allegation that some of these weapons have been moved since Russia proposed an international monitoring scheme to destroy the toxic munitions. The revelations came in a lengthy telephone interview Sunday with Brig. Gen. Zaher al-Sakat, who was a chemical-weapons specialist for the Syrian army until he defected to the rebels in March. Sakat spoke by Skype from a city in Jo

A fight taking place in the World Trade Organization shows how the rules on agriculture allow rich countries to continue huge subsidies whilst penalizing developing countries’ farmers.Food is one of the most important and emotive of all issues. As consumers, we can’t survive without it.Agriculture also employs the most people in most developing countries. Ensuring farmers have enough income is key to development and social stability.Some countries that did not achieve this have faced rural disgr

SINGAPORE ― Are prospects for global stability and prosperity improving or deteriorating? With enlightenment and progress in some parts of the world accompanied by atavism and stagnation elsewhere, this is not an easy question. But we can gain greater purchase on it by considering three other questions.The first is whether the United States will regain its standing as a source of moral leadership. Despite its flaws, America did provide such leadership, beginning at the end of World War II. But t

As the Chae Dong-wook affair lingers on, disdain grows not only on the nation’s law enforcement mechanism but on the state authority at large. This adds to the public fatigue from watching the protracted confrontations between rival political parties. Everyone offered a scenario on the relations between the prosecutor general and the mother of the boy the Chosun Ilbo claimed to be his illegitimate child and the way the mysterious paternity question could be resolved once and for all. Conspiracy

The lingering consequences of the Fukushima disaster are now taking a new form ― trade agreements and international dispute settlement proceedings. Japan is now formally contesting the import ban imposed by the Korean government against fishery products from eight prefectures due to the consumer concern over contaminated water along the Fukushima coastline. The possibility of Japan filing a suit with the World Trade Organization is also being mentioned. If this plan materializes, this will be th