Consider Donald Trump for a moment as a purveyor of men’s cologne. I quote from the merchandise section of trump.com, the website for his portfolio of “great” companies.　“‘Empire by Trump’ is the perfect accessory for the confident man determined to make his mark with passion, perseverance and drive. ... Bold notes of peppermint, spicy chai and a hint of apple demand attention.” Or there’s “Success by Trump,” which “captures the spirit of the driven man” and is “an inspiring blend of fresh junip

The optimists’ case for China is fairly straightforward. Yes, the world’s second-largest economy is grinding to its slowest pace in decades. But as investment and manufacturing -- traditionally the key drivers of Chinese growth -- decline in importance, domestic consumption and services are playing a bigger role: For the first time, services accounted for just over 50 percent of GDP last year.　This much-desired rebalancing should move China toward a far more sustainable growth model. New economy

Late in the evening on Super Tuesday, the Republicans’ former House majority leader, Tom DeLay, appeared on MSNBC and told Chris Matthews that party leaders would deny Donald Trump the party’s nomination if he arrives at the national convention in Cleveland lacking a delegate majority.　This was on a night when Trump’s victories in seven primaries set him up to dominate in the winner-take-all states coming down the pike later in March. 　An incredulous Matthews asked DeLay if the Republican establ

Are Americans ready for autonomous cars? They have been ready for more than a century. 　The horses that pulled buggies were autonomous, capable of finding their way home with little or no help from their drivers. So, autonomous travel is nothing new. It’s just better.　At the beginning of the 20th century, as the number of vehicles increased, the rate of deaths and injuries caused by vehicular accidents likewise jumped. Although modern technology and safer construction has helped decrease the num

When the United Kingdom joined the then-European Economic Community in 1973, it was at the rearguard of European integration. The question raised by the U.K.’s upcoming referendum on continued European Union membership is whether Britain is now at the forefront of Europe’s disintegration.　The issue has little to do with the insignificant accord that Prime Minister David Cameron recently reached with his EU colleagues. Indeed, it is hard to believe that this agreement will determine Britain’s fat

One of the most exciting and promising developments in the history of medical science may bypass the U.S. if the U.S. Congress fails to act. It needs to lift the ban on federal spending on research involving human embryos.　Other governments are already responding to the progress being made in genetic technology. The U.K. has given researchers permission to use an ingenious new gene-cutting technique called Crispr-Cas9 to investigate how human embryos develop. Chinese scientists have wielded the

Last year, the parents of my son’s friend at school began divorce proceedings. The father, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was not home most of the time and was abusive.　But not long after, the kid’s mother began to regret her decision. Her husband was vastly wealthy, but he refused to part with his riches. Lengthy lawsuits ensued. 　The woman eventually won custody rights, but lost everything else. We used to be close, but after she sold her car and moved away, we lost contact. 　The final time we m

Asked to describe the current shape of the Middle East, a visiting Israeli official uses a Hebrew expression, “gam vegam,” which translates roughly to: “It’s going in both directions at once.”  　The shards of the Middle East mosaic are as sharp and dangerous as ever, but U.S., Israeli, and Arab officials say these pieces have been rearranged in the past few months -- and may now fit together in different and often surprising ways. There are opportunities few observers would have expected, and al

In 2015, the term “Hell Joseon” spread on social networking services and has now become the most common term to describe the current malaise that afflicts Korea. The term comes from Joseon, a name used to refer to the royal dynasty that ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910. During the Japanese colonial period, Korea continued to be called Joseon, and it is part of the official name for North Korea. The name suggests rigidity and oppression.　The source of “Hell Joseon” anger is the growing unease over t

Apple has every right to challenge a federal magistrate’s order to help the FBI unlock a terrorist’s cellphone. This is a legal issue that needs to be resolved, and it is a discussion the nation needs to have.　However the underlying principle is this: No storage device, whether it’s an old-fashioned filing cabinet or the most advanced iPhone, can be immune to a court-approved search. If Apple can provide a “key” to unlock the phone used by a terrorist, Apple should be compelled to do so.　Syed Fa

The greatest external threat to South Korea is North Korea. In dealing with this threat, citizens of the South should unite, but they are not quite united. 　In a democratic state diverse views and opinions are inevitable and can make positive contributions to deal with threats to national security. But if the people are divided to the extent that they undermine the very foundation of the state, the North Korean threat can’t be countered. 　The state is founded on three pillars: political, economi

The Printemps department store outlet in Shanghai’s Pudong District would seem to have all the amenities necessary to succeed in modern Chinese retail: luxury brands, a venerable 150-year Parisian retailing history and an exclusive location.Despite these advantages, however, the store‘s management thought it was still missing something to attract customers. So next week they’re unveiling a gigantic, twisting, dragon-shaped slide that shoppers can use to drop from fifth-floor luxury boutiques to

Developing countries are bracing for a major slowdown this year. According to the U.N. report World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016, their growth will average only 3.8 percent this year -- the lowest rate since the global financial crisis in 2009 and matched in this century only by the recessionary year of 2001. And what is important to bear in mind is that the slowdown in China and the deep recessions in the Russian Federation and Brazil only explain part of the broad falloff in growth.　T

You know -- because anyone with access to social media knows -- that it was Obama’s secret hit squad of pillow-wielding assassins who took out Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.　　The timing of the “murder” seems a bit curious, so late in his second term that the president has little chance of getting a successor past the Senate. And, of course, Scalia was 79 years old with a history of serious heart problems. No matter. Rational thinking hardly keeps lunatic conspiracy theories like this from

One of the most bizarre arguments made by the people who support Britain’s exit from the European Union is the notion that a self-exiled U.K. will find a new global relevance, and indeed leadership role, as the center of the “Anglosphere.”　The idea is that there are a group of countries -- with the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing community of the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand at its core -- who share so much of a common heritage in language, history, law, democratic institutions

MUNICH -- The liberal international order that has helped stabilize the world since the end of the Cold War is under strain. A revanchist Russia, chaos in the Middle East and simmering tensions in the South China Sea are all symptoms of a system that is beginning to fray.　The drivers of instability are many. They include a shift in economic power from the West to the East, the weakening of formal institutions and widespread disaffection in Western democracies. But, above all, two key development

WASHINGTON — Is Bernie Sanders a closet foreign policy “realist?” Reading his few pronouncements on foreign policy, you sense that he embraces the realists’ deep skepticism about American military intervention. But he has said so little about foreign policy that it’s hard to be sure.　Foreign policy is the hole in Sanders’ political donut. We know what he doesn’t like — the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which he mentions, in nearly every debate, almost robotically, describing it as “one of the worst for

If one considers some of today’s main challenges – including climate change, pensions, public debt, and the labor market – an obvious conclusion emerges: It is relatively much worse to be young today than it was a quarter-century ago. Yet in most countries, the generational dimension is remarkably absent from the political debate. Fifty years ago, people spoke often, and loudly, of a “generation gap.” Today, that gap has become invisible. This is bad for the young, for democracy, and for social

Most of the world has a stake in the success of the talks on Syria which have begun in Geneva, Switzerland, weak though their prospects for success may appear to be.　First of all has to be the importance of the matter for the Syrians themselves. An estimated 320,000 of them have died so far in the nearly five years of war. The country itself has been torn into fragments, nearly all of which are dominated by an armed group fueled by hatred of other Syrian groups. As many as 11 million Syrians hav

The Syrian peace talks that are scheduled to resume in Geneva on Jan. 25 will take place under a framework set out in Vienna in October. These principles, agreed upon by the most important foreign players in Syria’s war, include a commitment to secular governance, the eventual defeat of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, the maintenance of Syria’s prewar borders, the preservation of its state institutions and the protection of minority groups.　What they do not include is an effort to