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 Tom Plate

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Tom Plate
Tom Plate, a veteran American columnist and career journalist, is the Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Affairs at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His many books include the "Giants of Asia" series, of which book four, "Conversations with Ban Ki-Moon: The View from the Top," is the latest.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2001
Take the lead, Mr. Koizumi
LOS ANGELES -- Probably the great foreign fear that overhangs the Japanese -- and in some respects is more fearsome than their near-moribund economy -- is the looming dark presence of North Korea.
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2001
U.S. must seek three-way balance in Asia
LOS ANGELES -- China is about to get a new U.S. ambassador. But will it get a new U.S. China policy?
COMMENTARY
Mar 29, 2001
Time to act is running out
The captain of a sinking cruise ship was trying to persuade his male passengers to let women and children board the lifeboats first. But he quickly learned he'd have to customize his pitch according to the nationalities on board. The Englishmen were easy; the captain simply appealed to their sense of...
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 2001
Two old allies, two visions
LOS ANGELES -- Remember how the senior George Bush, when he was president, admitted to having trouble with "the vision thing." Has that deficiency been passed on to his son?
COMMENTARY
Mar 11, 2001
Regionalism threatens global prosperity
LOS ANGELES -- Not many prominent Americans saw the huge cloud forming over globalization as early as did then-President Bill Clinton. After an address on the subject at last year's World Economic Forum in Davos -- in which he virtually pleaded with well-heeled corporate execs to put themselves in the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2001
Two unloved bureaucratic behemoths
LOS ANGELES -- With the free-market Bush administration settling into power, what's to become of those controversial twin pillars of the world economic system, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank? Those two institutions -- both based in Washington, D.C. and sharing reputations for arrogance...
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2001
Japan-U.S. ties: lost at sea?
LOS ANGELES -- The Japanese people are angry about a lot of things these days, not just their soggy economy. They are angry about the collision of a U.S. submarine with a Japanese fisheries ship off Hawaii. They are angry about their prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, who incredibly continued with a golf...
COMMENTARY
Jan 20, 2001
A good pick for key Asian-policy post
Nice guys don't always finish last. Soon after Gen. Colin Powell heard from President-elect George W. Bush that he was indeed to be nominated secretary of state, he picked up the telephone and asked someone he has known for years to join his team as the next assistant secretary of state for East Asian...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001
An Asia-Pacific checklist for Bush administration
George W. Bush's greatest foreign policy challenges over the next four years may well originate in the Asia-Pacific, where two-thirds of the world's population reside, and where probably two-thirds of the world's major geopolitical crises fester.

Longform

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?