Teachings from ancestors, dead or alive, are worth taking seriously because they are absolutely unselfish pieces of advice for a successful life of posterity. In family gatherings on occasions like Chuseok that we celebrated earlier this month, teachings are passed down from the older to younger generations. Parents will want to deliver to their children the advice they have received from their ...

Russia's imperious president, Vladimir Putin, may have just endured his worst week since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he says was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. His vaunted army, including a tank force once considered one of Russia's best, collapsed in the face of a Ukrainian offensive in eastern Ukraine. Some Russian soldiers fled after ditching their uniforms and donning ...

There is a saying that you can easily find quite a few rich countries, but you have to go quite far before you find an internationally esteemed country. In other words, becoming a respectable country is more difficult than being a rich country. Respect is not something that you can have automatically; you should earn it. How, then, can you earn respect from the international community? Among oth...

As summer turns to autumn in Europe, the stakes of the continent’s energy crisis are rising fast, with no end in sight. While the proximate cause of the current price spike is the war in Ukraine, its roots run much deeper. In fact, it was the inevitable result of European inaction and tunnel vision -- specifically, its failure to build a true energy union and its single-minded focus on implementi...

This was not the way Russia’s (President) Vladimir Putin wanted to look, for all the world to see on Thursday, when he walked into the massive and bizarrely flowered and leafy conference room in Uzbekistan for his much-needed meeting with a deep-pocketed counterpart, China’s (President) Xi Jinping. Putin, who has perfected the art and skill of walking into a summit with his dictator’s swagger-st...

Queen Elizabeth II has departed from her long life of service, leaving for us an exemplary record of service bespoke of her commitment to the same. Whereas a great many extraordinary epithets are being offered by means of respect and admiration, she herself would frequently describe herself by this dedication to service in signing royal documents alongside the phrase, "Your Servant." Whatever th...

Russia’s war against Ukraine has entered a new phase. The Ukrainian army is making spectacular advances, liberating many towns and villages, and forcing Russian forces to retreat. While it remains to be seen how far the Ukrainian counteroffensive will go, it is already clear that the strategic balance on the ground is shifting. Meanwhile, the European Union has fully mobilized to confront the en...

This year, the US military is behind recruiting goals by 23 percent, with the Army alone estimating it will miss goals by nearly 40,000 personnel over the next two years. Now, with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a new front has emerged that will likely exacerbate the military’s personnel struggle. The recent decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide abortion...

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I witnessed the ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) could transform the future of education for both teachers and students. In this video , a young student independently read out loud into a web cam from a teacher-supplied assignment and received feedback on ways to improve their reading fluency. It's the type of remote learning scenario that ha...

Nestled on the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula, Yeongam is a rural county in South Jeolla Province with some 53,000 residents. This is where players of the gayageum, a traditional Korean zither with 12 silk strings, gather from around the nation to compete every fall. The backdrop is Wolchulsan, a mountain with exquisite rock peaks that famously anchor a national park. Yeongam also is s...