“No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.” — Michelle Obama ... It’s a well-known quote, and by a woman who was a working professional, a mother and also the wife of one of the most respected men on earth. So the saying, that behind every great man is a great woman, really does ring true in this case. And unlike many of Obama’s predecessors, Michelle went her own way and showed that the wife of a

In his short story “Entropy” and his celebrated novel “The Crying of Lot 49,” Thomas Pynchon warns us of the possible annihilation of human civilization, using the second law of thermodynamics, also known as the entropy theory. According to Pynchon and the entropy theory, if everything becomes the same without diversity in an isolated system, its molecules will stop moving and the system will be in a steady state of equilibrium. Then the system will be pronounced dead, as the increase of entropy

Since the inauguration of the Trump Administration, South Korea has been holding its breath. The fate of the five-year-old Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (once termed as “KORUS” FTA hinting at chorus) has suddenly become uncertain. The dreaded term “termination” finally surfaced during President Trump’s interview on April 28, where he described the trade pact as “a horrible deal that should’ve never been made,” vowing renegotiation and possible termination. This has set South Korea scr

British Prime Minister Theresa May has, of her own volition, stripped her Conservative Party of its governing parliamentary majority by calling an early election. If she stays on as prime minister, she will also strip British citizens of the political and economic rights conferred by membership in the European Union. But May’s habit of stripping away people’s rights and powers is not new: For years, she has been normalizing the practice of stripping certain Britons of their citizenship altogethe

There is no doubt that our system of constitutional government is in a period of distress, but there is considerable doubt about the causes.All attention is now on President Donald Trump -- his ignorance of and disrespect for the Constitution and the basics of American civics. But gridlock, broken trust and rancid partisanship, the main symptoms of constitutional dysfunction, predated Trump’s election. Trump may have turned a serious illness into a lethal disease, but he is not the original sinn

It’s happened again: The leader of a mainstream party was given favorable election odds, ran a poor campaign, got trounced on social media and was taught a painful lesson by voters. It’s tempting to ask if they’ll ever learn.Theresa May, the UK prime minister, is known as a careful plodder, more technocrat and master-of-the-brief than glad-hander. But she took the biggest gamble possible in politics: She called an election she didn’t have to call in a bid to increase her governing majority. Davi

In late May, the Missile Defense Agency shot down a mock intercontinental ballistic missile with another missile. It was the equivalent of hitting a bullet with a bullet -- in space.The successful test confirmed that our country is making good progress in developing an effective missile defense system. And effective missile defense is needed now more than ever.The Obama administration allowed the US ballistic missile defense enterprise -- in reality, several systems tied together -- to pretty mu