Despite Hillary Clinton‘s recent slip in the polls, she has a big political opportunity, even though some of her advisers might regard it as a curse: She can run as the candidate who represents the “mainstream” leadership of both parties and knows how to fix our broken political system. In a year when anti-elitism has been a dominant theme in both parties, donning this establishment mantle might appear to be a mistake for Clinton. But let’s be honest: Her strength is that she‘s the voice of expe

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be more open than ever to a compromise with Japan that would end the two countries’ post-World War II territorial dispute. Both sides have been making tentative moves toward reconciliation since May, and a deal may finally be in the works after decades of false starts. 　In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Putin explained why Russia and Japan haven’t come to an agreement: “We are talking about finding a solution under which neither side will feel put

Whenever Chuseok, or the Korean thanksgiving, comes around, I ponder how my father helped me witness the true meaning of the holiday during my teenage years.Born and raised in Seoul, Chuseok was the most painful time of year for me. Traveling to Buan, North Jeolla Province, meant going through the crazy traffic incurred by the massive exodus of Seoulites visiting their parents’ homes in rural areas. The more challenging part was that I had to spend several days at my grandma’s place doing “nothi

In the epigraph of his novel, “The Victim,” Saul Bellow poses a problem of moral responsibility and reckoning. Borrowing from “Arabian Nights,” the Nobel Laureate asks a question: If a merchant threw date stones after eating the dates and accidentally killed the son of an Ifrit, would the merchant be responsible for it? Since the Ifrit and his son were invisible, the merchants did not know they were around. Still, however, the Ifrit wanted retribution for his son’s death and the merchant should

Korea has a one-child policy. It was not created by the government, but imposed by informed parents themselves. It turns out that no matter what the government says, and despite all the conceivable incentive packages, Korean parents choose (and in fact are determined) to have just one child. Look at the numbers. Korea’s birth rate has been stagnant at around 1.2 children per woman almost for a decade now. What is striking is that this is the period when the government made all-out efforts to boo