Oct 22, 2019   Viewpoints

[Kim Seong-kon] Watching ‘Battleship’ in 2019

Recently, I watched the 2012 Hollywood science fiction action film “Battleship,” which was about an alien invasion and the US Navy’s desperate attempts to stop it. While watching the film, two things caught my attention: The movie was set in Honolulu and it depicted friendship between the US and Japan. Then, it occurred to me that perhaps “Battleship” could be a metaphoric reenactment of the Pearl Harbor surprise attack by Japan in 1941, which ignited the Pacific Wa

Oct 21, 2019   Viewpoints

[Therese Raphael] Johnson has campaign slogan ready

There was very nearly a bedtime Brexit tale that went something like this: And so, finally, the porridge was just right, Parliament ate up Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and then, satisfied, went to bed. The end.Of course, lawmakers didn’t eat up and this interminable story isn’t over. Saturday’s parliamentary session instead served up another helping of thin gruel to those British voters who just want the whole thing resolved. Rather than the prime minister getting a vote o

Oct 21, 2019   Viewpoints

[Elizabeth Drew] Will Trump be removed from office?

For the first time, reasonable people in the United States have begun to speculate that President Donald Trump could be convicted by the Senate and thus removed from office. The likelihood is still low, but Trump’s position is weakening, and opinion polls are steadily moving against him. It is widely assumed that the House of Representatives will vote to impeach him, sending the question of his presidency to the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed and Republicans hold a majority.Trum

Oct 20, 2019   Viewpoints

[Shang-Jin Wei] Anti-globalization bias and public policy

Opponents of globalization constantly point to the uneven impact of open trade. Although trade liberalization can make the overall economic pie bigger, not everyone gets a larger slice, and many may receive a much smaller piece than before because of competition from foreign-made products. Such concerns help to explain why many blue-collar American workers voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election, and why French farmers and workers often take part in anti-globalization demonst

Oct 17, 2019   Viewpoints

[Min Gab-ryong] Korean police lead in world peace, security through ‘K-Cop Wave’

The Korean National Police Agency hosts the International Police Summit Seoul, 2019 with police chiefs from 30 countries around the world on the margins of the 74th celebration of Police Day. The summit will discuss “Global Partnership for Smart Policing” on the advent of the “fourth industrial revolution.” The event is possible owing to Korean police efforts to contribute to international policing cooperation.The Korean police have been actively pursuing the “K-Cop

Oct 16, 2019   Viewpoints

[Noah Smith] Economics Nobel for three pragmatic poverty-fighters

This year’s economics Nobel prize went to three worthy economists: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Kremer of Harvard University. The prize, awarded “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty,” shows several important ways that the economics discipline is changing. A popular conception of economists is that they’re the high priests of the free market, downplaying the role of government and givin

Oct 15, 2019   Viewpoints

[Kim Seong-kon] We, too, can inadvertently become terrorists

Today we live in a violent world. Every day, war and terrorism are exterminating human lives somewhere on this planet. In advanced countries, violence is not tolerated, and is strictly prohibited by law. In many underdeveloped countries, however, violence is so rampant and omnipresent that people have no other choice than to live with it. Violence takes many forms. Some forms of violence are visible and obvious, and others are invisible, subtle, or inconspicuous. Experts say there are four