Independent counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russians for waging information warfare against the US by tampering with the American electoral process in 2016. Sadly but predictably, America’s commander-in-chief did not respond by rallying his country to meet the threat. Rather, President Donald Trump went out of his way to dodge the question of Russian interference.　This episode has a broader significance: It gives the lie to the idea that the US can have a constructive foreign policy while

Americans love diversity -- or so they like to claim. A 2016 Pew survey found that Americans are much more likely than Europeans to say that diversity makes their country a better place to live.Other polls say the same.　But words and actions are two different things. In the mid-20th century, US cities were known for white flight -- the tendency of white people to move out of neighborhoods when black people moved in. If white Americans pay lip service to the idea of living in a multiracial societ

People concerned about robots taking away jobs might want to consider where it’s already happened. Machines with varying levels of intelligence have quietly taken over the most glamorous, coveted and admirable job in the world -- space exploration.　 It’s not that people can’t still be astronauts -- it’s just there aren’t nearly enough jobs for all the people with the desire and ability to do it. And in terms of gathering data, we can’t catch up to the robots, which have in recent years been plun

When Emmanuel Macron was elected French president, the conventional wisdom was that he’d only survive if his policies brought tangible economic growth. So here’s the paradox Macron faces this year: While growth is picking up and many other economic indicators are finally turning positive, his critics have become more numerous. Indeed, his popularity fell during the past month by as much as 5 percentage points. 　The year could not have started better for the French government on the economic fron

If America abandons the liberal international order it created, can that order still endure?　This has been the central geopolitical question posed by Donald Trump’s presidency. So far, longtime US allies have been working to fill the void created by the retreat of American leadership, and to prevent the erosion of a system that has served so many so well for so long. Yet their efforts cannot be more than a temporary solution to the crisis of global stewardship that Trump has created.From the tim

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Boris Johnson traded barbs over how far the EU intends to push its integration agenda. In a speech Wednesday, the UK foreign secretary accused the EU of seeking to create an “overarching European state.” Not true, Juncker responded: “I am strictly against a European superstate. We are not the United States of America.”　This exchange of views looks baffling to an economist. The question is not what lev

The European Union has had a democratic legitimacy problem for years: Its governing bodies -- with the exception of those that consist of national leaders and ministers -- are neither particularly responsive nor accountable to ordinary European voters. And, as the latest failed attempt to reform them has shown, they like it this way, for all the rhetoric about the need to overcome the democratic deficit.Voters have influence on the EU via two channels. One is electing national leaders, who, thro

It looks like one of the world’s best central bankers will get another term. Reports indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will nominate Haruhiko Kuroda for another term as head of the Bank of Japan. The decision to stay the course is just one more sign that things are going right in Japan. It’s hard to overstate what a lousy state Japan’s economy was in before Abe and Kuroda arrived on the scene. The bursting of real estate and housing bubbles had led to a lost decade in the 1990s, a

In recent years, concern about a resurgent Russia has dominated the Western security establishment’s conversations. Judging by this year’s edition of the Munich Security Report, which traditionally sets the agenda for the high-profile conference held in the Bavarian city -- it’s starting on Friday -- the focus is gradually beginning to shift to China. Big and important as these authoritarian countries are, though, I can’t help thinking the West should pay a bit more attention to internal threats

For years, economists and policymakers have hailed the propensity of Chinese to save. Among other things, they’ve pointed to low household debt as reason not to fear a financial crash in the world’s second-biggest economy. Now, though, one of China’s greatest economic strengths is becoming a crucial weakness.　Over the past two weeks, as they’ve held their annual work meetings, China’s various financial regulatory bodies have raised fears that Chinese households may be overleveraged. Banking regu

The South Korean use of the PyeongChang Olympics to improve relations with the North has left the US media torn between a natural curiosity about the first North Koreans they have seen up close and a compunction against “normalizing” the Kim regime. US audiences are treated, on one hand, to takes marveling at the exotic cheering squad and the no-frills personal style of Kim Yo-jong, and on the other hand, to strong expressions of disgust at the “fawning” represented by those takes. 　Both the cur

One could be forgiven for thinking the symbolism at the Olympics signaled a hard line from the Donald Trump administration on North Korea.　Before the opening ceremony, US Vice President Mike Pence met with North Korean dissidents. At the opening ceremonies, he sat with the parents of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was imprisoned and injured so gravely during his detention that he died shortly after being flown back to the US. In Tokyo, Pence announced that new sanctions would be unveile

It might seem puzzling that Asia is getting three Olympics in a row. South Korea has the 2018 Winter Games, Japan has the 2020 Summer Games and China has the 2022 Winter Games. Shouldn’t the International Olympic Committee spread the wealth a bit more?　It’s not that simple, because the selection of Olympics host cities is a complicated interplay between the political and economic environments of the world when it plays out. This run of Olympics is happening in Asia largely because of the financi

China’s biggest tech companies are emblems of national pride. When the government decides upon a priority, Tencent, Alibaba Group and Baidu are often asked to help devise the technology to achieve it. The companies are generally spared from official criticism, let alone interference with their commercial operations.　Those privileges aren’t absolute, however, as Tencent -- the company behind the WeChat messaging app -- recently learned. Late last month, China’s central bank shut down Tencent’s fl

In several new strategy documents, the Trump administration argues that America needs to gear up for prolonged geopolitical competition with China. This shift in US policy is welcome because it reflects the growing threat that a revisionist, authoritarian China poses to American interests in the Asia-Pacific and to the liberal international system more broadly. Yet even though US-China competition is primarily a transpacific matter, a transatlantic divergence may hamper American strategy on how

It wasn’t long ago that Matteo Renzi was the King Midas of Italian politics. At just 39, he rose from being mayor of Florence to becoming Italy’s youngest-ever prime minister. Such was his popularity that in the 2014 elections for the European Parliament, he secured the largest vote share ever gained by a left-of-center party in Italy. Many international leaders fell for his mixture of charisma and bravado: Barack Obama chose him as guest of honor for his final state dinner at the White House, s

The next governor of the People’s Bank of China has a broader, more conceptual inbox than is typical of incoming central bankers.　Zhou Xiaochuan has held the post since 2002 and has hinted that retirement is coming. Zhou helped transform the bank from a fairly obscure bureaucratic outpost in the economic world to a place with a growing international profile that’s increasingly transparent -- compared with when he arrived -- even if it still has a great deal of work to do. 　The next leader will h

Vasyl Hrystak is the last person you would expect to praise President Donald Trump for his administration’s approach to Russia. As the director of the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s spy service, he is intimately familiar with Russian predations in his own country. And yet, Trump often sounds oblivious -- at best -- to the Russian threat.　Last summer, Trump agreed to a joint US-Russian commission to examine cyberthreats, a ridiculous conceit considering that Russia hacked Democrats in

Nowhere did Tuesday’s launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket echo as powerfully as in Russia. The private US company continues to produce technical feats on which the Russian space industry has given up: First the consistent reuse of rockets, and now the successful launch of a rocket with as many as 27 engines.　The Soviet Union tried something similar in the 1960s and early 1970s. Sergei Korolev, the rocket designer who launched the first satellite and the first man into space, began the develop

On Monday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Steve Wynn, the chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts, had hidden a $7.5 million payment to “a woman who accused the casino mogul of forcing her to have sex.” It was the latest in a 10-day string of revelations about Wynn’s sexual behavior, going back decades, that has left him bruised in the press yet still in control of his empire.　About an hour and a half later, Lululemon Athletica announced that Chief Executive Laurent P