LONDON ― I do not envy the current European leaders their task. Over the past 60 years, Europe has developed into the largest political union and biggest economic market the world has seen. To keep it is a huge responsibility. So I write with deep humility and respect for those called on to discharge that responsibility.This crisis is existential for Europe. The design flaw of the euro is now manifest. It was a project entirely right in principle ― to combine a single market with a single curren

A respected British academic once took note of an ASEAN trait in the face of Chinese assertiveness ― it tended to back off.Operating on the principle that “discretion was the better part of valor,” the ASEAN way was to go silent rather than upset Beijing, Gerald Segal observed.Segal could well have been referring to ASEAN’s recent embarrassing failure to issue a joint communique after stumbling over how to deal with the South China Sea maritime disputes.But he was not. He was writing in 1996 abo

WASHINGTON ― The first question to ask about the draconian anti-leaking legislation passed by the Senate intelligence committee last week is whether it applies uniformly to all branches of government that may disclose classified information unlawfully. And the answer is: Of course not. Members of Congress and their staffs are entirely exempted from the new rules that may require for others more polygraphs, more paperwork, and possible loss of pension benefits. White House and other executive bra

“Everyone loves a conspiracy,” says symbology professor Robert Langdon, the main character in Dan Brown’s mega-bestseller “The Da Vinci Code” (2003). The novel develops a wild conspiracy theory about what is allegedly the “greatest cover-up in history”; that Jesus married a woman named Mary Magdalene who subsequently escaped to southern France carrying his child. The Catholic Church decided to repress this story for political reasons, thus denying Mary Magdalene ― the embodiment of the “sacred f

TOKYO ― This is a year of presidential elections worldwide, and the last to take place ― on Dec. 19 ― will be in South Korea. That ballot, however, is already having an international impact, in part because South Korea’s failure to ratify an important new intelligence-sharing treaty with Japan is widely seen as a result of campaign politics. But the election may well have a more positive impact on the region as a whole.On July 10, the frontrunner, Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri (New Frontie