Congressional gridlock is dead. Long live constructive bipartisanship in our nation’s capital.Well, that’s not reality ― yet. But it’s encouraging that President Barack Obama and other leaders in Washington are talking more about shared sacrifices needed to deal with the country’s real priorities.They include working together to reduce the deficit and reform entitlements by making sound compromises that cut spending and raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans.During his press conference Wednesda

NEW DELHI ― President Barack Obama’s first foreign trip since winning a second term highlights Asia’s new centrality to America’s economy and security. But Obama’s Asian tour also underscores the main question about American policy in the region: Will the United States’ “pivot” to Asia acquire concrete strategic content, or will it remain largely a rhetorical repackaging of old policies?The United States, quick to capitalize on regional concerns triggered by China’s increasingly muscular self-as

WASHINGTON ― So it turns out that the top brass at the CIA had an inbox of secrets of the all-too-human, sexual variety. Titillating, unquestionably. But what about the other secrets ― the intelligence secrets that are the agency’s reason for existence? How are they doing on this score? When the uproar passes over the personal misjudgments of Gen. David Petraeus, the country will be left with this question of intelligence goals and missions. And here’s where an overlooked problem of the Petraeus

The incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama narrowly won a majority of the popular vote against the Republican challenger Mitt Romney, 50.6 percent to 47.9 percent. However, he won a commanding majority among the fast-growing Latino (71 percent) and Asian populations (73 percent), along with African-Americans (93 percent), according to New York Times exit polls. In other words, he swept groups representing the “Global South” or “Majority World” regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia. According

Last year, the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation released a report on the achievement and tasks of English education policies focused on practical English. According to the report, more than 90 percent of elementary school students and their parents, 86 percent of middle school students and their parents, and 76 percent of high school students and their parents said that a balanced education of four skills ― reading, listening, speaking and writing ― would enhance students’ ability to

Recently, there has been great excitement within the baseball community here in Korea with regards to the possible MLB acquisition of Ryu Hyun-jin, a southpaw who throws for the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles. It comes as no surprise, then, that the organization on the other end that is interested is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who, given their long history, have a proud tradition of welcoming new talent across cultural divides into the Big Leagues. Beginning in 1947, with the signing of Jackie Robinson, and

Traveling to Traverse City by Lake Michigan in the U.S. in cold, rainy October, serendipity struck in funny ways. In a bookshop next door to the renovated Art Deco State Theatre movie-house run by the film director Mike Moore, I picked up a 2010 book by the Serbian physicist Vlatko Vedral, “Decoding Reality,” which sees the world through the lens of quantum information. I read the book in Boston, right in the midst of Hurricane Sandy as it tore through the East Coast of the U.S., demonstrating t

PARIS ― French public reaction to American CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus’ suicide-bombing of his own career demonstrates a lack of understanding of the perceived offense in favor of a blind defense of libertinism. It was learned last week that Petraeus had an extramarital affair with his biographer, reserve Army officer Paula Broadwell (who, like Petraeus, is married with children).Let’s go back in time for some context.The French never understood why President Bill Clinton was impeached for

With the election behind us, I had hoped our politicians would get beyond games of chicken. No such luck.First, you need to understand that the upcoming game of chicken isn’t about how much or when we cut the budget deficit, or even whether the upcoming “fiscal cliff” poses a danger to the economy.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned last week that the automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to start in January amount to too much deficit reduction, too soon. They’d put

WASHINGTON ― David Petraeus achieved genuinely great things in his career, so his fall as CIA director over what he bluntly described in his resignation letter Friday as “extremely poor judgment ... engaging in an extramarital affair” has the poignancy you might find in a novel by Leo Tolstoy or Victor Hugo. Petraeus may have seemed larger than life in uniform, but beneath the ribbons he was a very human story.Petraeus’ 14-month tenure as CIA director was short and, compared to his rocket-like a

OSAKA ― Japan’s alliance with the United States is widely viewed as a crucial counterweight to China’s hegemonic ambitions, which pose significant threats to Asian security. But, although the United States and Japan are conducting joint naval exercises in the East China Sea in order to signal to China that it should tone down its actions over the disputed Senkaku Islands, all is not well with the alliance.Controversy over the deployment by the U.S. Marines of 12 tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey aircraft t

The main opposition Democratic United Party has again put the brakes on the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island. The party has refused to pass a bill allocating 200 billion won for the project next year through the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly. It demanded that the entire budget be axed.Behind the party’s nonsensical move was its presidential candidate Moon Jae-in. A week ago, he visited Jeju and told opponents to the project that if elected president, he would hal

Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, has toned down her party’s chaebol reform proposals. She has, among other things, rejected a plan to penalize existing circular shareholding arrangements among chaebol affiliates. Her decision was prudent but drew fire from opposition presidential runners.Circular shareholdings are high on the economic democratization agendas of the three main presidential contenders, who include, along with Park, Moon Jae-in of the main oppositio

NEW HAVEN ― During the United States’ recent presidential election campaign, public-opinion polls consistently showed that the economy ― and especially unemployment ― was voters’ number one concern. The Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, sought to capitalize on the issue, asserting: “The president’s plans haven’t worked ― he doesn’t have a plan to get the economy going.”Nonetheless, Barack Obama was reelected. The outcome may reflect the economy’s slight improvement at election time (as happene

It’s no question that Koreans work more hours than in any other country in the world. However, in terms of management efficiency they are ranked among the lowest. What could possibly be the reason for such inefficiency? Is it Confucianism ― employees looking back, embracing tradition and refusing to adapt to a changing world? Is it their military training in which all men are required to dedicate nearly two years of their lives? I believe that it is a combination of both that creates a business

When a student of mine called me to ask for some advice, I listened calmly, expecting him to inquire about his grades or request that I look over one of his essays. Instead, his dilemma was a rather unique one. He had decided to apply to Swarthmore, a top-ranked liberal arts school in America, and wanted to submit a rock album that he had been recording but that was still incomplete. Not only was his counselor against the student’s decision to apply to Swarthmore, insisting that his scores were

Japan’s leaders just can’t seem to put the 19th century behind them. It may be 2012, and the world surrounding this island nation of 126 million is changing at a blistering pace, but Japanese officialdom seems oddly stuck in the late 1800s. Back then, reformers adopted the slogan “rich nation, strong army.” This rabid nationalism culminated, of course, in World War II and a crushing defeat. Fast-forward a hundred years or so. Here is the hauntingly similar motto Shinzo Abe, very possibly Japan’s

Imagine someone whose name changes every five years. Confusion would reign for a while, to say the least. In Korea, changing a person’s name even requires an approval from the court. Situations in other countries are not that different.Check this out: It was 1993 when the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Energy and Resources were merged to become the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (known as “MOTIE”). In 1998, the ministry’s name was changed as the Ministry of Commerce,

Having helped power President Barack Obama to victory over Mitt Romney, Hispanic voters are suddenly the “it” demographic in U.S. politics. Hispanics made up 10 percent of the total vote and gave Obama almost three votes for every one earned by Romney. Obama may even have won a majority among Florida’s Cuban voters, who were once a Republican mainstay. With more than 60,000 Hispanics turning 18 every month between now and 2016, we doubt many Republicans are still in denial about the demographic

WASHINGTON ― On foreign policy, President Obama effectively posted a sign on the White House lawn last summer that said: Come back after Election Day. Now, the moment has arrived and the world’s problems are lining up for Obama’s attention. To manage the global problems coming at him, Obama will have to make decisions of the sort he sometimes deferred during his first term. The time is over for the cautious (if often sensible) approach that was dubbed “leading from behind.” Here’s a look at some