author

 
 

Meta

Marc Champion
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2015
Want more heroes? Bring back the military draft
If the French train incident tells us anything useful about defending against terrorism, it is that ordinary people will sometimes be the only defense.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2015
A dangerous time for Russia-NATO relations
It is the early stages of a standoff between nuclear powers that are the most dangerous.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2015
Turkey's democracy is being quietly stolen
If President Recep Erdogan succeeds in using a rekindled Kurdish conflict to secure his presidential powers, it will be difficult for Turkish democracy to survive in any meaningful sense.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2015
Waterloo shows why the Brits need Europe
Just as Napoleon Bonaparte learned at Waterloo, the British may not want to risk being on their own, outside a resentful Europe that unites against it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2015
Greece's Tsipras isn't on the side of democracy
The question for Greeks today is whether they think the leftist policies of Syriza will give them a better future with default, capital controls and the drachma.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2015
Erdogan the conqueror
For Turkey's weakened democratic institutions to survive, and for it to remain delicately balanced between East and West, the Kurds and their new friends need to do well in Sunday's elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2015
Tayyipism strikes a chord with Turkish voters
President Recep Erdogan's new Turkey is more religious, more conservative, more rooted in the Middle East and less bound to the West.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2015
Could Palmya be a turning point for Assad?
Syrian President Bashar Assad may have allowed Islamic State to take the World Heritage site of Palmyra, hoping an atrocity there would bring the international community to his side.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2015
Cameron has only himself to blame for tight race
British Prime Minister David Cameron's agenda for the last two years before the election has been dominated by Europe and immigration, but many voters care more about the economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2015
Gallipoli and Armenian genocide shouldn't mix
All political leaders manipulate history, but the decision by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to shift the 100th anniversary commemoration of the allied landings at Gallipoli forward 24 hours to April 24 — the same day as the anniversary of the Armenian genocide — was unusually crass.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2015
Call Cameron's 'gaffe' anything but guileless
There's been much debate over whether British Prime Minister David Cameron's shock announcement about his political future was just an unguarded slip — as he tried to look like a normal family man rather than a power-crazed politician on a soft-feature TV show — or a tactic.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2015
Ukraine needs to realize it can't beat Putin
The longer Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pretends to his people that Ukraine can seize Donestsk and Luhansk back from Russia by force, the more lives, sovereignty and wealth Ukraine will lose.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2015
Erdogan's reinvention of Turkey isn't funny
As Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reminds Turkey of its roots through cosplay, the continued purging of judicial institutions as well as the jailing and intimidation of journalists in that country make the debates in France over free speech look quaint by comparison.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Jan 20, 2015
U.K. Muslims' 'special burden'
Do Muslim minorities in Britain and other European countries have a special burden to help track down Islamic extremists?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2015
Charlie Hebdo's cartoons aren't the issues
Those news outlets that chose not to publish Charlie Hebdo's cartoons — after 12 people were killed — might have done so out of principle rather than fear, but if so, their news judgment was off.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2014
U.S. soft power takes a hit in wake of report
It's a testimony to U.S. soft power that Washington persuaded so many allies to take part in a policy of torture that they must have known would one day blow up in their faces.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2014
Why reuniting territories would benefit Russia
Russia could serve its own interests by encouraging some of the territories that helped break away from neighboring countries to rejoin them.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2014
Is Putin losing Ukraine by stoking a war?
Russian President Vladimir Putin risks alienating ethnic Russians living in Ukraine by fueling war there.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2014
Putin's defense of Hitler pact should worry all
The fact that — in 2014 — Russian President Vladimir Putin is openly prepared to defend the 1939 Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact — an archetype of cynical, totalitarian politics — should concern us all.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2014
Is Ukraine's crisis the U.S. and Europe's fault?
The question at the heart of the Ukraine crisis remains whether Russia should have special right to determine the policies and governments of its neighboring countries.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals