Conventional wisdom formed quickly last week after oral arguments in the two same-sex marriage cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. The gist is that the court would duck the fundamental question of whether the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to marry ― implied in the California Proposition 8 case ― and strike down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act on the limited ground that it interferes with states’ rights. Don’t be too sure. It’s not just that oral arguments can be deceiving. (Rem

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the Korea International Cooperation Agency, the implementing organization of Korea’s official development assistance. KOICA has earned a good reputation by transferring Korea’s development experience to developing countries around the world. It has also dispatched more than 10,000 volunteer workers abroad. ODA is classified into two types ― grants and loans. Grants are provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and KOICA while loans are offered by the Ministry o

Ten years ago, while visiting International Business Machines Corp.’s software-research lab in Beijing, I observed dozens of Chinese employees moving about seemingly free of any security-related limitations. I asked the lab’s manager two questions: “Do you have any way of knowing whether any of your Chinese staff is also working for the Chinese government? “Do you have any way of knowing whether any of your Chinese staff is a spy?” The manager unhesitatingly answered “No” to both. He hastily add

PARIS ― The Internet went crazy last week over what was described in hyperventilating tweets as NATO’s plan to kill hackers. “NATO-Commissioned Report Says Killing Hackers Is Basically OK,” blared one tech blog headline, nicely reinforcing the paranoia. That makes it sound as if the governments of NATO countries are looking for any excuse to vaporize anyone with a computer, doesn’t it? The more irrationally jumpy among us might imagine that these governments are just waiting for the guy beside u

The fifth summit of the BRICS countries, which concluded in Durban, South Africa on Wednesday, has sent positive signals of solidarity, partnership and win-win cooperation. With their pledge to enhance cooperation and coordination in such fields as international politics, economy, finance, trade and development, the group is poised to play a bigger role on the world stage, which should be interpreted as a good trend. Among the many initiatives that were approved by leaders of the BRICS countries

Taiwan’s Ministry of Education moved last week to amend existing regulations that would block an application by renowned baker Wu Pao-chun for the country’s Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program.The MOE’s uncharacteristically rapid response came after President Ma Ying-jeou publicly instructed the government to keep Wu in Taiwan by all means necessary. Wu was contemplating further education to boost his business skills but was reportedly put off by Taiwanese regulations, whi

The U.N. Human Rights Council recently unanimously adopted a resolution on establishing a panel to investigate human rights abuse in North Korea.It is important for the international community to seize this momentum and step up pressure on the reclusive country to improve its human rights conditions, which would pave the way for the swift resolution of North Korea’s abduction of Japanese.The resolution was jointly submitted by Japan and the European Union, and denounced North Korea’s “systematic

President Obama’s makeup visit to Israel was a great success, by most measures, but don’t expect peace between Israelis and Palestinians anytime soon ― despite Obama’s ringing call for it.Relations between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been prickly, at best, since Obama first took office in 2009. During last year’s presidential election Netanyahu tacitly campaigned for Mitt Romney, certainly angering Obama.But now that Obama has begun his second term, he realized that

Peng Liyuan, celebrity folksinger and wife of President Xi Jinping has a chic, elegant and decidedly local look. Since March 22, when she appeared at a Moscow airport, arm in arm with her smiling husband on the opening leg of his first international trip as China’s new head of state, talk of her has spread across newspapers, blogs and microblogs. “Peng Liyuan’s debut trip is remarkable. For a very long time, party leaders, and especially their wives, left dowdy impressions,” tweeted a retired ac

Last week, when Hillary Clinton released a video announcing her support for gay marriage, Twitter went wild. It was totally expected ― her husband and daughter took the same position months earlier ― and didn’t have as much political import as Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman’s announcement this month that he now favors same-sex marriage. The rules are different for Hillary Clinton. No non-incumbent in the history of contemporary U.S. presidential politics ever looked so formidable three year