OSAKA ― Territorial and maritime disputes among China, Taiwan, and several Southeast Asian countries are roiling the South China Sea region, with little prospect of resolution anytime soon. But the current uneasy status quo may be tenable, so long as the parties embrace serious confidence-building measures through multilateral forums while maintaining effective deterrence vis--vis China and a commitment not to use offensive force.Naturally, China is eager to exclude interference by extra-regiona

NEW YORK ― When the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, triggering the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, a broad consensus about what caused the crisis seemed to emerge. A bloated and dysfunctional financial system had misallocated capital and, rather than managing risk, had actually created it. Financial deregulation ― together with easy money ― had contributed to excessive risk-taking. Monetary policy would be relatively ineffective in reviving the e

An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he’s giving up. “I can’t stomach what’s going on in Washington anymore,” he says. “The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life.”My friend is falling into exactly the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into ― such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they’re free to take over everything.Republicans blame the shutdown of Washington and possible default on the

WASHINGTON ― In the late 1950s, the famous nuclear strategist Herman Kahn facetiously suggested building what he called a “Doomsday Machine.” A computer would be wired to detonate a vast array of nuclear bombs if the Soviet Union took an action defined as intolerable. Kahn was joking. The point of his black humor was that official U.S. nuclear strategy was as crazy as his Doomsday Machine, in that it posited a war from which there was no rational escape. The alternative, wrote Fred Kaplan in his

Here is something to remember as nuclear negotiations between the West and Iran appear set to recommence: The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, the putative moderate on whose shoulders great American hopes have been placed, is proud of the work he did to advance his country’s nuclear program ― and also of his efforts to stymie Western attempts to stop that work.Rouhani didn’t talk about this during his recent visit to the United Nations. He came bearing a different message: Iran seeks a peacefu

BUDAPEST ― As far as Germany is concerned, the drama of the euro crisis is over. The subject was barely discussed in the country’s recent election campaign. Chancellor Angela Merkel did what was necessary to ensure the euro’s survival, and she did so at the least possible cost to Germany ― a feat that earned her the support of pro-European Germans as well as those who trust her to protect German interests. Not surprisingly, she won re-election resoundingly.But it was a Pyrrhic victory. The euroz

The day Asian leaders have long dreaded is here: The era of rapid growth is over.It has taken five years, but the fallout from what Asians call the “Lehman shock” is finally hitting gross domestic product and living standards. These risks are the talk of Bali, where Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations are mulling what to do about a world where “risks remain tilted to the downside.” There, Michael Taylor, chief credit officer for Asia at Moody’s Investors Service, said chaotic markets and a