President Trump spoke the right words in commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, but did he mean them? So far, his presidency has been about defying the postwar order that was based on shared values and global partnership, rather than cementing its legacy. Trump spoke here Thursday at what he rightly described as “freedom’s altar,” the burial site for nearly 10,000 Americans who died in the 1944 invasion of Normandy and in subsequent battles that ultimately led to Nazi Ger

Last month’s elections to the European Parliament produced better results than one could have expected, and for a simple reason: The silent pro-European majority has spoken. What they said is that they want to preserve the values on which the European Union was founded, but that they also want radical changes in the way the EU functions. Their main concern is climate change. This favors the pro-European parties, especially the Greens. The anti-European parties, which cannot be expected

Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has, outwardly at least, been one of the world’s most stable and predictable regimes -- an assertive authoritarian government propped up by a mix of repression and acquiescence at home.So it’s only natural that some of the country’s leading analytical minds are looking to life after Putin is scheduled to depart in 2024: The present is too depressing to discuss.The Free Russia Foundation, a Washington-based th

President Trump’s love-hate relationship with Britain has been on display in London this week. This ambivalence takes an especially bizarre turn in comments by the president and his supporters about British intelligence, historically America’s most important secret partner. After bashing prominent British figures on his way to London, Trump was on good behavior Tuesday, after a glittering state dinner the night before with the queen. He paid ritual homage to the special alliance betw

As the US Congress returns from a 10-day break, the question of whether the House of Representatives (controlled by the Democrats) should formally commence the process of impeaching President Donald Trump for misdeeds committed during his tenure -- and perhaps before -- has split the party. Theoretically, impeachment by the House would be followed by a trial in the Senate. But the Senate, controlled by the Republicans, is considered highly unlikely to convict their party’s standard-bearer,

Let me ask our readers a question: Do you think it was appropriate for our minister of foreign affairs to go to Budapest, Hungary, to join rescue operations for Korean tourists missing when their boat sank in the Danube River? I expect a negative answer, but President Moon Jae-in and his aides thought it was necessary. These days, many are concerned that Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa is somewhat off the line of the denuclearization business against North Korea. Yet, she is responsible for the

In my class in the English Department at the University of California, Irvine, I had my American students discuss Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” with reference to multicultural issues. Some students read the novel as a story about Ishmael’s initiation from adolescent innocence into adulthood experience. Indeed, through his encounter with Queequeg, Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, Ishmael learns the importance of embracing others -- such as different races, religions and culture

During a short visit to Kyoto, Japan, on my way to Korea, a taxi driver told me that US President Donald Trump made him nervous because he is so unpredictable. I reassured him that many, if not most, Americans feel the same way. We concluded the short conversation by agreeing Trump is not fit to be president.The problem, of course, is that in a democracy, the people have the final say on the fitness of leaders. The problem for Trump is that he won the presidency in 2016 with a solid Electoral Co

The most significant result of the recent European Parliament election is neither that conservatives and social democrats lost seats to Liberals and Greens, nor that far-right nationalists gained less than anticipated. It is that citizens voted in much larger numbers than anyone expected. From the first popular election of the European Parliament, in 1979, to the last one, in 2014, turnout inexorably declined, gradually falling from 63 percent to 43 percent. Five years ago, less than half of

Poor old Robert Mueller.“Mr. Mueller seemed to expect that the system would work as it had in the past,” noted a news analysis last week in the New York Times. Former special counsel Mueller scrupulously followed legal and institutional rules as well as his own professional and personal code of ethics.As a result, the Times pointed out, a bit wistfully, the way the paper’s travel section might pine for the heyday of Palm Springs or old Havana, the old ways were swept aside, and

One of the least-discussed but perhaps most consequential comments by special counsel Robert Mueller in his appearance before reporters this week was his blunt counterintelligence assessment: “Russian intelligence officers, who are part of the Russian military, launched a concerted attack on our political system.” Here’s why this judgment is so important: The US military, backed by Mueller’s findings and those of the intelligence community, has responded by developing a t

Tuesday marks the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. It was an event that profoundly shaped not only modern China, but also the US-China relationship.It is the odd anniversary that will pass virtually unobserved in the place where it had the greatest impact. Each year, around the anniversary, the government mobilizes an army of censors and trolls to stamp out any discussion of Tiananmen online.Yet for the world outside China, revisiting the Tiananmen Square massacre is crucial fo