WASHINGTON ― During President Obama’s first term, there was hidden friction between powerful Cabinet secretaries and a White House that wanted control over the foreign-policy process. Now Obama has assembled a new team that, for better or worse, seems more likely to follow the White House lead. The first term featured the famous “team of rivals,” people with heavyweight egos and ambitions who could buck the White House and get away with it. Hillary Clinton and Bob Gates were strong secretaries o

Americans are on familiar terms with the sex scandal. Liaisons in business and politics are regularly reported in sordid detail, and typically explained as the boneheaded decisions of smart and successful men under the influence of power and libido. In the 1950s, such scandals briefly provided an opportunity for a larger national conversation, one that questioned the ethics of corporate America’s focus on the bottom line and generated the first systematic advice regarding how to keep sex from hu

The recent case involving an American couple from Illinois and a Korean baby highlights the importance of words, especially in a legal context. The Duquets and mainstream media outlets have referred to the case as an adoption. The question, however, is whether this case primarily concerns adoption, legal or illegal.The United Nations says, “Adoption is the legal and voluntary taking and treating of the child of other parents as one’s own in so far as provided by the laws of the country.” It adds

BRUSSELS ― On a hillside overlooking the Turkish city of Gaziantep, Patriot missile launchers are keeping watch under NATO command and control. This is just one of six Patriot batteries from three Allied countries ― Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States ― providing protection for millions of people along Turkey’s southeastern border with Syria. The deployment shows NATO’s enduring commitment to its core task: safeguarding its members’ security. It also shows that, when a crisis erupts,

It is a universal human rights principle that all people are subject to the same laws of justice, as Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.”This principle is enshrined in the Korean Constitution as well. Article 11 reads in part: “All citizens are equal before the law, and there may be no discrimination in political, economic, social, or cultural life on account of sex

Wrapping up its 48 days of operation, President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team said Thursday that the incoming administration would focus on job creation. Few would say the transition team was misguided when it put the provision of jobs on top of the list of five goals in Park’s administration of state affairs.But the transition team was ill-advised when it implied that the Park administration would put employment before growth as if the two had no close relationship. Instead, they go tog

Although the word China doesn’t appear in the title of the “Strategy to Mitigate the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets” that the White House introduced Feb. 20, it was written between the lines in bold type. And that’s a good thing: The recent escalation in Chinese cyberattacks against U.S. targets is a threat to businesses and to the stability of diplomatic relations. It illustrates why Congress must take stronger action to bolster defenses against digital intrusions, and why the rules of cyberwarfar

MUNICH ― The eurozone is now in its sixth year of crisis ― and of efforts by the European Central Bank and the international community to end it. Policymakers are becoming ensnared in a creeping interventionism that, as British Prime Minister David Cameron has put it, may alter the eurozone “beyond recognition” and violates Europe’s basic economic and political rules.The newest demand, loudly voiced by French President Franois Hollande, is for the ECB to manipulate the exchange rate. Hollande is

In her victory speech one day after the Dec. 19 vote, President-elect Park Geun-hye pledged to achieve national reconciliation by gathering opinions from across the political spectrum and appointing people from across the nation.She declared that she would put an end to past discriminatory practices in personnel management by selecting people based on talent. But she also said she would pursue regional, generational and gender balance. Coming from a politician who has valued promises more than a

The government was one step behind when it hurriedly arranged a meeting on Thursday with officials of domestic food companies to rein in soaring food prices. Food companies have already raised the prices of a wide array of products, ranging from flour and soy sauce to kimchi, tofu and soju.For instance, Samyang Corp. raised the prices of its flour products by up to 9 percent on Wednesday. It was the last among major flour producers to raise prices. The increase in flour prices pushed cookie comp

Sen. Lindsey Graham said it best.Talking about the challenges the next secretary of defense will confront, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, warned that he will face “a world on fire.”So true, and the Middle East along with the larger Islamic world are the perfect demonstration. When have we ever seen such widespread turmoil, destruction and death as we are witnessing right now?Every day we hear about the continuing violence in Syria, Pakistan, Mali, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Nigeria

Raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 should be a no-brainer.Republicans say it will cause employers to shed jobs, but that’s baloney. Employers won’t outsource the jobs abroad or substitute machines for them because jobs at this low level of pay are all in the local personal-service sector (retail, restaurant, hotel and so on), where employers pass on small wage hikes to customers as pennies more on their bills.States that have set their minimum wage closer to $9 than the current federal mi

Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal will today call an urgent meeting to consider emergency measures to cope with a possible electricity supply shortage in April, when Myanmar temporarily suspends its natural gas supply to Thailand during the Songkran festival.Pongsak warned that a shortage may result in power cuts in some areas, since Myanmar supplies roughly 20 percent of the natural gas consumed in Thailand. However, some energy experts say the suspension of the natural gas supply from Mya

Around 2.6 million Chinese people visited Taiwan last year, including just over 220,000 travelers on self-guided tours, according to figures from the Tourism Bureau.While tourism officials must be pleased about the healthy growth of tourism in Taiwan, any further influx of visitors might not be so healthy for the country’s main attractions ― Sun Moon Lake, Alishan National Scenic Area, Taroko National Park and the National Palace Museum.There have been complaints about visitors chatting loudly a

Industrialized nations ― including Japan, the United States and European countries ― and China and other emerging nations have agreed to avoid “currency competition” in which currencies are guided lower.It is laudable that the Group of 20 meeting in Moscow avoided naming Japan in connection with recent weakening of the yen, but it did not quench the underlying fire that could blaze up again into a new confrontation.The meeting was attended by finance ministers and central bank chiefs from 20 pri

MANILA ― As the slowdown in the world’s major industrial economies drags on, growth in developing Asia is being affected. A serious burden will likely be placed on the region’s major economies, particularly its two giants, India and China. Both countries’ external sectors have clearly been hit hard, while domestic consumption is stagnating. Fixed-asset investment in India rose by only 2.3 percent in the first half of 2012, compared to 9 percent in the year-earlier period.Unlike China, which has

WASHINGTON ― A sign of Russia’s defensiveness, bordering on paranoia, is that some senior Russian officials regard the recent buzz about shale gas and oil as American propaganda designed to undermine Moscow’s clout as an energy producer. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has a chip on its shoulder, for sure. It’s a big weight of resentment, reflecting the crushed ambitions of a fallen superpower. But Russia still has big shoulders, too. It’s a country that, for all its ills, has the ability to assist or o

Many Koreans that have fallen into poverty say they find it increasingly difficult to get out. They are worried that they may slip into the poverty trap, in which a self-reinforcing mechanism causes poverty to persist.Economists say the poverty trap starts to reinforce itself unless drastic measures are taken to break the vicious circle, which otherwise continues from generation to generation. But recovery from poverty is easier said than done, as is confirmed by a recent report from the Korea I

President Lee Myung-bak, whose five-year term in office ends Sunday, presided over his final Cabinet meeting and delivered a farewell address to the nation Tuesday.The past five years, he said in the address, had not just been one of the most demanding periods of time for him but one of the most rewarding ones. To his credit, the nation emerged almost unscathed from global economic crises under his stewardship. Among other things he cited as his achievements were Korea’s new status as the sevent

The last time Congress tried to fix the U.S. immigration system, an overly stringent guest-worker program led to the legislation’s demise. Labor unions, fearing a wave of unskilled foreign workers who might depress wages and take jobs from Americans, backed the measure. Business groups, worried they wouldn’t be able to find qualified engineers or low-skilled janitors, opposed it. The coalition needed to pass a bill splintered. This time, President Barack Obama, who as a senator in 2007 voted for