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COMMENTARY / World

Feb 24, 2009

Obama's part in an ethics-based economy

By Hans Kung

TUBINGEN, Germany — Many say the world financial crisis could not have been foreseen. Perhaps not by financiers and economists, but others who were watching how markets were developing — often with dismay — were more than worried.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 24, 2009

Unbalanced bargaining game with China

By Du Tran

SINGAPORE — The territorial dispute in the South China Sea — referred to as the Spratly Islands dispute — used to be described as a major regional security flash point. Although core issues remain unresolved, economic integration and globalization, since the beginning of this decade, have temporarily...

COMMENTARY

Feb 23, 2009

Crisis hits the weak spots

By Kiroku Hanai

The worst crisis in a century is eroding the Japanese economy as a growing number of "nonregular" workers lose their jobs. The unemployment rate in December reached 4.4 percent, up 0.5 percentage point from the previous month — the steepest increase ever. The labor ministry estimates that by the end...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 23, 2009

Success of Kosovo is Europe's responsibility

By Wolfgang Ischinger, Martti Ahtisaari and Albert Rohan

PRAGUE — On Feb. 17, 2008, Kosovo declared its independence and has so far been recognized by more than 50 countries representing close to 60 percent of the world's economic power. Interethnic violence — which many feared — has largely been avoided and the mass exodus of Serbs that some also predicted...

COMMENTARY

Feb 22, 2009

Sea bump echoes Cold War risks

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — A ship I once served in had a small brass plate on the bridge with a quotation from Thucydides, the Greek statesman, historian and seaman of the fourth century B.C.: "A collision at sea can ruin your whole day." It is still true.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 22, 2009

Shiftless apathy to the victims makes all Japanese guilty for the past

By Roger Pulvers

"When we speak of guilt about the past, we are not thinking about individuals, or even organizations, but rather a guilt that infects the entire generation that lives through an era — and in a sense the era itself.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 22, 2009

Shiftless apathy to the victims makes all Japanese guilty for the past

By Roger Pulvers

"When we speak of guilt about the past, we are not thinking about individuals, or even organizations, but rather a guilt that infects the entire generation that lives through an era — and in a sense the era itself.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 21, 2009

U.S. policy shift in South Asia

By Harsh V. Pant

LONDON — The recent visit by U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke to South Asia comes at a time of growing unease in the region and underscores the Obama administration's efforts to formulate a new strategy for winning the Afghan war.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 20, 2009

Beijing's hopes for Obama

By Wang Jianwei

SHANGHAI — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week has embarked on her first overseas trip to Asia as America's chief diplomat. While the leadership in all four capitals she visits are eager to gauge the pulse of the new U.S. government, Beijing is probably more anxious to figure out the...

COMMENTARY

Feb 18, 2009

Face up to a common threat

By Brahma Chellaney

Despite a spreading jihad culture, U.S. President Barack Obama has ended America's global "war on terror" as dramatically as his predecessor had initiated it. With the stroke of his pen, Obama has effectively terminated the war on terror that President George W. Bush had launched to defeat terrorists...

COMMENTARY

Feb 18, 2009

Tsvangirai has likely made the wrong choice

By Gwynne Dyer

On Feb. 11, in Harare, Morgan Tsvangirai drank the poisoned chalice, knowing that it was poisoned. He was sworn in as prime minister of Zimbabwe, in a government that is still controlled by his deadly enemy, President Robert Mugabe. He must know that his chances of success, even of political survival,...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 18, 2009

Stunned Australia starts searching for answers

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY — The worst natural disaster in Australian history has killed at least 200 people, destroyed 7,000 houses and a dozen villages, and left a nation agonizing over the question — why did we let this happen?

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.

What comes after 100?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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