America’s population may be shrinking. That’s mostly because of COVID, but it’s also part of longer-term trends in fertility that show no signs of abating. These trends, which are worldwide, have already caused major economic dislocation and are likely to continue to do so. First, some data. From 1936 to 1956, the US fertility rate rose from 1.8 to 3.2. At the peak of the baby boom, the average woman in the US was having at least three children who survived until adulthood. (A

Last week, I was struggling to fix the nagging security upgrade problem of my blog. To find a way to update an encryption security protocol, I studied dozens of online documents, but I felt clueless as they were filled with too much jargon and complex code-related instructions. I had no other choice but to take up the technical problem myself and somehow manage to stop the warning message popping up, since it’s a self-hosted blog. In other words, there is no kind technical assistant to r

July began with tentative hopes that the world was finally turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic. After peaking in late April, new cases around the world fell steadily until the end of June. They ticked up a bit in early July and began to rise quickly as the delta variant spread rapidly around the world. The speed of delta’s spread has caught public health authorities around the world off guard and changed calculations about how to bring the pandemic under control. In South Korea,

A successful Olympics first of all means the absence of major accidents or incidents during the two-week period in the host city. Then the International Olympic Committee, the national Olympic committee and the official sponsors would regard substantial income from the games as a success -- a lost dream this time in the state of emergency due to the coronavirus. Another measure of success for the quadrennial event is the number of participants and countries they represent. A total of 11,326 men

In the late 1980s, when I visited big electronic stores in the US, such as Circuit City or Best Buy, I saw Japanese electronics such as Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi television sets occupy the display floor like a conquering army. Far behind the Japanese products were two or three Samsung TV sets, sadly left out in the cold. Sanyo stereos, Toshiba laptops and Sony Walkman, too, joined the parade in those US electronics stores. At the time, Japanese electronic devices were Americans’ favorit

Chinese firms are more enthusiastic than most about listing on US stock exchanges. Currently, 250 of them, including companies that are registered in Hong Kong or offshore centers but derive most of their revenue and profits from mainland China, trade on US equity markets. But a recent flurry of official measures in both China and the United States suggests that the two governments are not keen on Chinese firms retaining their US listings. If push comes to shove, how would delisting hurt either

What do rocket strikes by Shiite militias in Iraq, ransomware attacks on targets in the US, and Russia’s use of mercenaries on battlefields in the Middle East have in common? They are part of a trend in which America’s rivals are using nonstate actors and quasi-deniable means to put pressure on its interests. Washington is frequently finding itself on the business end of a classic strategy -- proxy warfare -- for which it has yet to devise an effective answer. Proxy warfare has bee

In Paradise Lost, the English poet John Milton encapsulates a fundamental truth about the struggle to end a violent conflict and establish a sustainable peace: “Who overcomes by force,  Hath overcome but half his foe.” This insight was crucial to my own understanding of how to chart a way to end Colombia’s long and costly civil war, and it is acutely relevant to our shared global challenges today. To build peace, leaders need to foster hope and anchor policies in empath

In 1398, the most complete collection of Buddhist texts went into Haein Temple, never to be seen in its entirety by the general public. This year, amid the global pandemic, the temple in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province finally offered access, saying, “We hope to help people find the hope and strength to overcome the crisis, just as our forebears did in the face of foreign invasion.” Free tours began on June 19, the first of many scheduled on weekends, but now they are suspended

From voting rights to vaccinations, ever since we Americans have been forced to stare at the split-screen evolution of our political schizophrenia, we have always known that our new reality leads us to just one core question. Our problem is that we not only know The Question, but we also know The Answer. Today we will be looking at ways we can convert our new split-screen reality into a power-tool of manipulation. Then perhaps we can use it to save thousands of lives by finally getting America

Recently, most US states finally lifted the year-long requirement of wearing a facial mask indoors. As a result, you can now freely shop groceries, clothes or miscellanies in a store without donning a mask. It is like “Back to normal again.” Still, however, some people, especially those who have to work indoors all day long, dealing with customers, are still wearing a mask as a precautionary measure. Face-covering masks have changed our lives significantly in many respects, especia

It was one hot summer day in 2011. I was a master student at the time and the school was on a summer break. Because I was going to participate in a summer music festival in Aspen, Colorado, I just stayed home to be prepared and ready for the festival. Most of my friends went back to Korea to meet their family and friends. Just a few Korean students decided to stay like myself. Even though I had a good reason to stay, I still missed “home” and my family. One day, a friend gave me ad

Just this month, we’ve seen political collapse in Haiti and military collapse in Afghanistan. South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, turned 10 years old amid looming famine, rampant corruption and continued violence. Ethiopia’s civil war threatens the country’s very existence. All these disasters have two things in common: In each, the United States has poured in more than a billion dollars in aid in the past 10 years -- substantially more in some cases. And in each, it

Hurricane Elsa’s appearance in the Caribbean this month, far before the usual onset of the Atlantic hurricane season, reminds us of what awaits the world’s small island developing states (SIDS) in the years ahead. These states are already suffering the devastating effects of climate change, and will now need to spend heavily on repairs and measures to build resilience. Rich countries and their fossil-fuel companies contributed overwhelmingly to the problem, so they should help cover