There is a saying in English, “You cannot choose your neighbor.” Indeed, it seems luck can determine whether or not you have a good neighbor. If you are unlucky, you have to either put up with your bad neighbor or move to another place. Perhaps that is why people say, “Neighborhood is everything” when renting an apartment or purchasing a house. Like many, I have experienced living alongside a few bad neighbors in the past. When I lived in the States, for example, one of my neighbors was a colleg

HONG KONG ― Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has been dogged by scandal from his first days in office, and his personal integrity is routinely impugned by much of the public. So it is no surprise that his popularity is plummeting.Leung has only himself to blame. He seems incapable of connecting with ordinary Hong Kong citizens, instead coming across as a shifty politician who often dodges direct questions, offers vague answers, and evades responsibility for major failings by apologizing

TOKYO ― Two years have passed since the Fukushima nuclear accident, and international interest in its impact is beginning to wane. But that impact continues to reverberate ― and not only in global public debate about the future of nuclear energy. More than a hundred thousand people remain displaced by the accident, some having lost family, homes, possessions, and even the desire to live.Japan’s nuclear industry, regulators, and government have a responsibility to explain clearly why science and

WASHINGTON ― Sen. Rand Paul made some dubious warnings about drone strikes on San Francisco cafes in his filibuster last week against the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA director. But his larger argument for clearer limits on drones is absolutely right.Paul’s battle shouldn’t have been with Brennan, who said that as CIA director he wouldn’t have any legal power to authorize domestic drone strikes. Brennan, who has been trying to sort out legal rules for drone warfare, deserved to be confirme

NEWPORT BEACH ― After instant and seemingly coordinated fanfare in Europe and the United States, the proposal for a European Union-U.S. free-trade area has been generating little media attention. There are three reasons for this, and all three highlight broader constraints on good national economic policymaking and productive cross-border coordination.In his “State of the Union” address in February, U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a “comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partners

NEW DELHI ― As if to highlight that Asia’s biggest challenge is managing the rise of an increasingly assertive China, the Chinese government has unveiled plans to build large new dams on major rivers flowing to other countries. The decision by China’s State Council to ride roughshod over downstream countries’ concerns and proceed unilaterally shows that the main issue facing Asia is not readiness to accommodate China’s rise, but the need to persuade China’s leaders to institutionalize cooperatio