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Tony Blair
For Tony Blair's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2014
The ideology of those who kidnap schoolgirls
Until we clean the education soil in which the plants producing the poisonous ideologies enforced by Boko Haram and other extremist groups take root, the life chances of millions of young people around the world will be jeopardized.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 26, 2014
Religious differences to fuel this century's bloody wars
The last weeks have seen a ghastly roll call of terrorist attacks in the obvious places: Syria, Libya, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and Pakistan. Also suffering are places where we have only in recent years seen such violence: Nigeria, and in many parts of central Africa, in Russia and across central Asia, and in Burma, Thailand and the Philippines. We can either see all of these acts of killing as separate — produced by various political contexts — or we can start to see the clear common theme and start to produce a genuine global strategy to deal with it.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2013
Hope amid Mideast turmoil
No one put the chances of reviving the Israel-Palestine peace process at more than minimal. Yet it has happened. Now is not the time for despair in the Middle East.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2013
West must deal with Egypt's de facto leadership
Events in Egypt are the latest example of the interplay worldwide among democracy, protest and government efficacy. Western disengagement is not an option.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2013
The trouble within Islam
There is a problematic strain within Islam, and we have to be honest about it. At its heart is a view of religion that is not compatible with pluralistic societies.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2011
The good fight against a less dramatic killer
The tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in Haiti are among the world's most notorious recent natural disasters. Their fierce devastation claimed thousands of lives, destroyed vital infrastructure and crippled economies. The communities affected could not be more different from one another, yet the similarities in the responses are striking.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2011
The true nature of faith in a globalized age
LONDON — The number of people proclaiming their faith worldwide is growing. This is clearly so in the Islamic world. Whereas Europe's birthrate is stagnant, the Arab population is set to double in the coming decades, and the population will rise in many Asian Muslim-majority countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2010
Facing a time of many tests
LONDON — This is a tough time to be a decision-maker. We live in an era of low predictability. The world appears in constant flux. The challenges are immense. And most of all, there is in many instances a clash between the correct short-term politics and the correct long-term policy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2009
Breaking the climate deadlock
LONDON — The July 9 Major Economics Forum (MEF) meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, where the leaders of the world's largest economies have gathered to discuss progress toward a new global climate agreement, comes at a vital moment just six months before a deal is supposed to be struck in Copenhagen. When many of the same leaders met in April to address the economic crisis, they rightly pledged to do "whatever is necessary." The same spirit needs to animate the L'Aquila meeting.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on