The world is changing faster than our sluggish political leaders -- let alone the public -- can manage. The COVID-19 virus and climate change move far more quickly than the international community, as we saw last week at the G-20 in Rome and the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Back home, rapid social shifts push many Americans to embrace fraudsters who promise to save them. The urgent need to upgrade our fraying democracy is blocked by Republican Party naysayers and Democratic Party

For decades, IT administrators have waged an endless war to protect their systems from hackers. That struggle started half a century ago with audio tapes and floppy discs the primary weapon, before faster wired and mobile communications allowed an adversary to breach a target’s network to steal credit card information or shut down oil pipelines. Take that battle 20,000 kilometers into space where satellites roam and you have the final frontier of cybersecurity. And with it come the same v

As we collectively hurtle into the era of climate change, international relations as we’ve known them for almost four centuries will change beyond recognition. This shift is probably inevitable, and possibly even necessary. But it will also cause new conflicts, and therefore war and suffering. Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, diplomats have -- in peacetime and war alike -- for the most part subscribed to the principle of national sovereignty. This is the idea, enshrined in the Chart

When I was watching the dispute unfold this week over a popular note-taking app for Apple’s mobile operating system iOS, I could not help but think about what mobile apps really mean for my digital life beleaguered by a steady rise in total cost. App developer Ginger Labs on Monday announced that it would introduce a subscription pricing model for its popular note-taking mobile app Notability. The announcement itself is not surprising, since app developers often switch from a one-time pur

As I watched the results of the Japanese election on Sunday, I was reminded again of how Japan has shrunk in influence in recent years. Japanese elections rarely commanded international attention, but Japan was in the news much more than it is today. What happened and why? And what does it mean for South Korea? After its defeat in World War II, Japan worked with US-dominated occupation authorities to implement political and economic reforms that laid the groundwork for recovery and sustained ec

Say what you like about Congress‘ squabbling and eternally disarrayed Democrats; they’ve showed in the last few weeks that they deserve to be recognized as the party of ideas. And not just a few ideas; many, many ideas -- maybe too many for one piece of legislation: universal prekindergarten, federally subsidized child care, clean-energy tax credits, even a Civilian Climate Corps, paid for by a newly invented surtax on millionaires. It‘s a good thing they had so many ideas av

Since gaining independence after World War II, the nation has had 12 presidents. The world admires the postwar history of South Korea as a rare success story, but the fates of our former presidents only remind us what a rugged path we have had to arrive here now. We hate to recount that the first president, Syngman Rhee, died during exile in Hawaii and Park Chung-hee, who took power in a military coup, was assassinated by his close aide. Among their successors, two were jailed for treason, two

Sometimes we wonder: “What if I took the other path? What would happen, then?” You cannot know the outcome of such a choice, and yet what is certain is that your life would turn out very different. For example, what would happen if you married another person, majored in a different field, or chose another occupation? Your life would be completely different from now. In our lives, we encounter numerous occasions in which we find ourselves at “two roads diverged.” The roa

Stablecoins have gone from an obscure corner of crypto to near the center of it. Major institutions, such as Mastercard, are now trying to create alternate payment networks based on stablecoin and crypto. I am rooting for such efforts to succeed, but in the meantime I have news for you: Stablecoins aren’t always stable. Unlike a lot of critics, however, I view fluctuating prices for stablecoins as not only acceptable but also desirable. The potential for stablecoins is obvious. Imagine i

As the leaders of Asia and the Pacific prepare to head to Glasgow for the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), they can be sure that our region will be in the spotlight: Many of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change are located here; the seven G20 members from this region are responsible for over half of global GHG emissions; and five of the 10 top countries with the greatest historic responsibility for emissions since the beginning of

On Oct. 25, the electric-vehicle producer Tesla’s market capitalization reached $1 trillion -- more than the combined value of the next 10 global car manufacturers. Even after discounting for exuberance, this is a strong indicator of how the threat of climate change is triggering a transformation of capitalism. To be sure, polluters still abound, and green washing is pervasive. But it would be a mistake to dismiss the changeover underway. Governments, however, are not on track to deliver

Too bad we as a species don’t have the luxury of worrying about just one existential threat at a time. We’re already rather busy with one -- a pandemic -- and about to talk our heads off about another -- climate change -- at the COP26 convention in Glasgow. Now we’re also reminded of a third, nuclear annihilation. This summer, China apparently tested new hypersonic missile systems -- as recently revealed by the Financial Times but officially denied by Beijing. What’s sho

“The taxation system has tilted toward the rich, and away from the middle class, in the last ten years. It is dramatic, and I don’t think it’s appreciated. And I think it should be addressed.” So said the billionaire investor Warren Buffett 18 years ago. He illustrated his claim by surveying his office staff: Although he was then the world’s second-richest person, he was paying a lower percentage of his income in taxes than his receptionist was. Since then, econom

A cacophony of images, a riot of colors. That is what I saw at an exhibition in Itaewon, central Seoul, heralded as a hip show. It surely had all the elements of an of-the-moment show: Provocative images, saturated colors, all the glamour of glossy artwork. “Toiletpaper: The Studio” at Hyundai Card Storage in Itaewon is a literal replica of the photography-based magazine Toiletpaper’s Milan studio. The exhibition is touted as the first to ever look inside the studio of Ita

America is in a bad mood. Granted, this is a subjective impression, but it is common, and there is no shortage of analyses of it, examining everything from social media to income inequality. I would like to try on for size the simplest possible explanation: If Americans are much more negative than they used to be, it is mostly about politics, and in recent decades political failure has become much more pervasive than it used to be. The result is a kind of national mood disorder. I am not so nai