CAMBRIDGE, Massachussetts ― Throughout history, major political and economic shocks have often occurred in August, when leaders have gone on vacation believing that world affairs are quiet. Consider World War I’s outbreak in 1914, the Nazi-Soviet pact in 1939, the Sputnik launch in 1957, the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the failed coup in Moscow of 1991. Then there was the Nixon shock of 1971 (when the American president took the dollar off the gold standard and imposed wage, price, and trade contro

LONDON ― The trial, conviction, and suspended death sentence of Gu Kailai, the wife of purged Chinese leader Bo Xilai, has called into question not only China’s legal system, but the very unity of the Communist Party leadership.Let us begin with the many questions raised at the trial. For starters, Gu claimed that she killed the British businessman Neil Heywood only to protect her son. But, given Gu’s power as Bo’s wife, she could have had someone like Heywood jailed or expelled from China at th

Missile range limits to South Korea need to be revised as soon as possible. North Korea has constantly developed its missile capabilities by extending its range, while South Korea has been prevented from catching up with its rival. The Pyongyang regime launched a long-range missile, the Kwangmyongsong-3, in April, but failed as it crashed into the West Sea a few minutes after liftoff. Though Pyongyang said it meant to put a satellite into orbit, it broke the U.S-North Korea agreement that it wou

As a Korean, it may be hard to make an impartial comment on the escalating dispute between Korea and Japan over the territorial rights to Dokdo. Basically, we Koreans do not consider the Dokdo issue a symmetrical controversy because Korea has had “effective control” over the group of islets in the East Sea for more than six decades. No one believes that there can be any change to it.Yet, it should be worthwhile to examine what logic the Japanese have developed to support their claim on “Takeshim

Signatures on paper have almost disappeared in shops in Seoul, with digital signatures taking their place. Digital signing is convenient and quick. But one may have noticed a difference between the two: In the conventional paper format, the signer and sales clerk apparently take the procedure more seriously than when its digital. Oftentimes I have a sales clerk who hits the “ok” button on his or her cash register in the middle of my putting my signature on the pad, which basically terminates the

Language reflects the culture from which it is derived and developed. It mirrors the customs, emotions and psychology of the people who speak the tongue. English, for example, is known to be a highly rational language that does not allow logical fallacies, inconsistency or incoherency. If you write grammatically incorrect sentences or contradict yourself in the same paragraph, your writing will immediately lose its validity and credibility. British and American college students’ term papers, for

TOKYO ― Has Japan’s political paralysis finally lifted? The recent agreement, after a long debate, between the government and leading opposition parties to double the consumption tax ― from 5 percent to 8 percent in 2014, and then to 10 percent in 2015 ― suggests that it has. But there is a real risk that the government will mistake this measure for the end of the reform process. In fact, it is ― or should be ― only the beginning.By virtually any measure, official Japanese debt is the highest in