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Marc Champion
For Marc Champion's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 5, 2022
How Ukraine’s rail network threw Russia’s military off track
While Ukraine's forces have done a lot to foil the Kremlin's plan for a quick victory, so too have logistics, and in particular a lack of access to rail transport.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 2, 2022
Ukraine faces more brutal form of war as Russia regroups
After early failures, officials from the U.S. and allied nations expect more indiscriminate tactics as Russian forces seek to suppress resistance.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Feb 27, 2022
Putin races against clock as fast military advance is ‘frustrated’
Russia's plans for Ukraine face rapidly rising costs due to delays caused by tougher-than-expected resistance from forces on the ground, even as its military retains overwhelming advantages.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 26, 2022
Ukraine’s TV comedian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy finds his role as wartime leader
Zelenskyy may be among the least likely wartime leaders the world has known, yet he's winning praise in the role just when his political fortunes had been dwindling.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Feb 3, 2022
A journey across Ukraine shows invasion would come at high price
The potentially ruinous cost of occupying a part of one of Europe's poorest countries explains why many Ukrainians believe Russia won't do it.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 16, 2022
Putin’s troops wouldn’t get cheers in this once pro-Russia city
When people in Mariupol imagine a future under Putin's rule, they no longer see a wealthier, more comfortable one in Russia, 48 kilometers away.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Nov 26, 2021
Mud could help decide timing of any move by Russia against Ukraine
The condition of terrain could create a window of diplomacy to steer President Vladimir Putin away from a war, analysts say.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 29, 2021
Russia has abandoned climate denial and that may prove awkward
However sincere the Kremlin's engagement may be, some initiatives lack detail, while others could drag wider geopolitical disputes into negotiations.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 8, 2021
Superpower rivalry and vaccine envy set stage for climate talks
U.S.-China tensions loom over COP26, as does the inequality between rich and poor countries in both COVID-19 response and climate finance.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 14, 2021
Taliban ‘conundrum’ forcing strange bedfellows on Afghanistan
World leaders one after another have called for international cooperation even as they jockey to gain influence in the great power vacuum that the U.S. departure has left behind.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 18, 2021
What countries will fight over when green energy dominates
Some experts predict that the end of an era defined by uneven access to fossil fuel deposits will produce a security dividend, similar to the one after the end of the Cold War.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2020
A virus to kill populism, or make it stronger?
Will the pandemic makes or break the populist leaders that the last global crisis gave rise to?
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Aug 22, 2019
Trump's snub of Denmark over Greenland shows disregard for a model U.S. ally
President Donald Trump is coming to Europe. And not for the first time, he has embarrassed a U.S. ally and reached out to Russia's Vladimir Putin before even boarding a plane.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 31, 2018
Anything but America: Conflicted China struggles to break the superpower mold
What struck Wang Wen about Antarctica — beyond the brutality of the cold — was the scale of U.S. operations in such an inhospitable environment and the American flag fluttering by the sign that marks the geographic South Pole.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 2, 2018
Modi threads path between rising China and an uncertain U.S. at first Shangri-La Dialogue appearance
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis described India as the "fulcrum" of security in the Indo-Pacific region as he traveled this week to an annual security conference in Singapore, attended for the first time by an Indian leader.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2018
Trump's art of unpredictability has foreign leaders concerned
As a businessman, Donald Trump saw strength in his willingness to keep multiple balls in the air and change approach as they fell. In international relations, that unpredictability may be proving a liability.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 8, 2018
Chinese missiles are transforming balance of power in the skies
For a quarter century, the U.S. and its allies owned the skies, fighting wars secure in the knowledge that no opponent could compete in the air. As tensions with Russia and China surge, that's no longer the case.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2016
Turkey's last shreds of balance are disappearing
An increasingly radical Recep Tayyip Erdogan is forcing out the last of the team of smart and qualified people he brought in to run Turkey with him.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2016
There's a better way to secure our airports
Rather than add another layer of baggage and body screens, the aviation industry should emulate the security measures employed by Israel's Ben Gurion airport.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2016
Not time to normalize with Russia
The West shouldn't reengage with President Vladimir Putin until Russia stops posing a threat to Ukraine.

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree