YANGON ― Across the Middle East, and now in Burma (Myanmar), one of the great questions of contemporary global politics has resurfaced: How can countries move from a failing authoritarianism to some form of self-sustaining pluralism? Foreign ministers everywhere, in turn, face crucial policy questions: When a country launches such a political transition, when should other countries help, and what is the best way to do so?Happy transitions, to paraphrase Tolstoy, are all alike; but every unhappy

In 1764 an Italian nobleman named Cesare Beccaria published a short treatise entitled “On Crimes and Punishments.” In this text he argued convincingly for the abolition of the death penalty from modern society. As we approach the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the publication of this text there is a worldwide movement for the abolition of the death penalty. South Korea has been a part of this movement since 1998 after Kim Dae-jung, a former death row inmate, was inaugurated as president

All wars are a mistake. Sometimes, war may seem inevitable. But if one deeply examines war, it is always sparked inadvertently by poor judgment, excessive greed or the pure madness of politicians. In the famous film and Broadway musical, “Hair,” for example, the Vietnam War is metaphorically portrayed as a huge mistake of political and military leaders. And it is the people, not politicians, who must suffer and die during war. The Korean War, too, was a fatal mistake that could have been prevent

SEOUL ― Last month, the leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea agreed to begin negotiations later this year on a trilateral free-trade agreement. If the talks succeed, the global trade map will need to be redrawn. An FTA that encompasses, respectively, the world’s second, third, and 12th biggest economies (in purchasing power parity terms in 2011), with a population of 1.5 billion, would dwarf the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement, comprising the United States, Canada,

Even before NATO forces begin leaving Afghanistan, predator nations are pouring lavish praise, diplomatic agreements and buckets full of cash on Afghan leaders, trying to win access to the nation’s vast natural resources after Western troops leave.Chief among them are China, Iran and India ― nations that contributed nothing toward the military effort over the last decade but hope to reap benefits from it anyway.For example, in Beijing late last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Chinese Pre

BEIRUT ― For a generation, Lebanese lived the nightmare of sectarian civil war. Now they are watching a similar vortex gather velocity in neighboring Syria, and many fear that Lebanon will be sucked into a conflict that nearly everyone dreads. Already, the Syrian strife is starting to bleed into Lebanon. The Akkar region in the northeast has become a transit point for medical and other relief supplies ― and the Syrian opposition hopes to use it as a staging ground for operations across the borde