In the first half of the 20th century, Germany was aggressive, expansionist and dangerous. Its legacy includes millions of needless war deaths and the unspeakable crimes of the Nazi regime. After 1945, however, the country changed. Chastened, defeated and shamed, Germany demilitarized at the insistence of the victorious Allies and soon adopted a constitution banning “wars of aggression.” Germans, to their credit, looked in the mirror, wrestled with their dark history and rejected vi

On April 3, Hungary’s anti-liberal, ultranationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, won a fourth term. While the West remains fixated on the war next door in Ukraine, the threat of Hungary’s continued march away from liberal democracy is coming from inside the Western house. Orban remains popular at home, but his election was not exactly free and fair. In classic authoritarian fashion, Orban has used his years in power and control over levers of the state to stack the cards dramatic

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is known as a political novice. Indeed, Yoon was elected president without any prior political career. Although he was prosecutor general, Yoon was not a professional politician, but a public prosecutor under the supervision of the minister of justice. However, such a background can be an advantage for him. Unlike professional politicians who have to consider many factors, Yoon can make a fresh start by boldly changing things. For example, declining to enter Cheon

We’re in Mexicantown, a neighborhood in the 27th-largest city in the USA. We’ve just had a bite to eat at Los Galanes, the restaurant we chose over Xochimilco, which is nearby. Now our car is heading south, on this fine February day, so we can drive over the bridge and across the border. Uh-oh -- we’re in a helluva traffic jam. Lots of huge trucks. Tiny cars trapped in between. No one is moving. Across the bridge, we can see the country we’re trying to drive to. Just can

Much has changed since President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers to combat the spread of COVID-19. Immunity, whether natural or acquired through vaccines, is much more widespread, and breakthrough treatments are available. While the disease may never be completely eradicated, it’s time to return to a public health policy that prizes individual liberty over government authority. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden remains unwilling to relinquish the emergency powers he has wielded sin

The fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reminded us of the unforeseeable disruptions constantly confronting the global economy. We have been taught this lesson many times. No one could have predicted the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and few anticipated the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, or Donald Trump’s election, which resulted in the United States turning toward protectionism and nationalism. Even those who did anticipate these crises could not have

One of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s campaign promises is to transform South Korea into a leader in STEM research. The promise follows decades of presidential efforts to promote science and technology as part of the broader economic and social development plans. Presidents have come and gone, but each effort has built on the other, leaving the country in a strong position to achieve the president-elect’s promise. The quantification of academic activity has produced various indices

About a month has passed since the March 9 presidential election in South Korea, in which a former prosecutor-general who joined the main opposition party at the last minute won with a razor-thin margin. Right-wing President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol picked a former prime minister under a past leftist government to lead his first Cabinet. Han Duck-soo was chosen for his rich experience as an economic administrator and in hopes of an easier endorsement by the National Assembly, now dominated by the i

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had, and is continuing to have, catastrophic consequences for many people. But Ukraine’s people are not the war’s only victims -- and many Ukrainians refuse to ignore that fact. The thousands of human casualties include more than 1,200 Ukrainian civilians killed, and many more injured. These numbers are growing each day, and the Russian retreat from around Kyiv has brought to light new evidence of war crimes. Nearly 5,000 people have been killed i

In the same week that Taiwanese took to the streets to repudiate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan’s leaders rolled out the red carpet for a visit by former US President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. This is the same man who, together with Trump, withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure its government to initiate a bogus investigation into Joe Biden’s son, and who then fired the US ambassador to Ukraine when she refused to go along with the exto

People say, “Things change.” However, “Some things never change,” as the maxim says. It is especially true in Korea. For example, as the Yoon administration is about to launch, people begin talking about the urgency of “normalizing the abnormal” that the previous Moon administration has created for the past five years. They argue that Korea’s diplomacy with China and North Korea or with Japan and the US has been far from normal. They point out that the

Last week, President Joe Biden sent Congress his proposed defense budget for the next fiscal year: an $813 billion wish list, almost $60 billion more than he requested a year ago -- more military spending than any president, including Donald Trump, has requested since World War II. Once Congress approves the request -- and, in all likelihood, makes it bigger -- US defense spending will be larger in inflation-adjusted dollars than it was at the height of the Vietnam War or President Ronald Reaga

It’s national budget time in Washington, so the conversation on Capitol Hill is focused on numbers. But an important number is being overlooked, one that affects our ability to defend ourselves. At a time when threats abroad are growing, America’s ability to recruit the volunteers needed to fully staff its armed forces is on the wane. The 2023 defense budget request just released by the Biden administration reduces the size of the US Army by 12,000 soldiers. It isn’t that the

The solidarity on display at the recent NATO, US-EU, and G7 summits, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to wage war on Ukraine, revealed a rejuvenated West. The Atlantic democracies have responded to Russia’s invasion with impressive -- and somewhat unexpected -- unity as they arm Ukraine, reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, and sanction the Russian economy. Instead of turning away migrants, European Union member states are opening their doors to millions of Ukrainian refugee

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s plan to relocate the presidential office before his May 10 inauguration is abrupt and absurd. The decision, slathered in opaqueness, not only defies public opinion and risks gross overspending, it intensifies security concerns amid increasing North Korean missile tests. None of that seems to matter to Yoon, known for his bulldog mentality when he was a prosecutor. With logistics denying his original relocation plan, he now wants to move to the Ministry of