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COMMENTARY

Mar 20, 2011

Acting responsibly to save Libyan civilians

By Ramesh Thakur

WATERLOO, Ontario — The responsibility to protect is the mobilizer of last resort of the world's will to act to prevent and halt mass atrocities and mitigate the effects of sovereignty as organized hypocrisy, as Stephen Krasner famously put it.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 20, 2011

Japanese lessons on reducing disaster risk

By Haruhiko Kuroda

MANILA — The March 11 earthquake-tsunami is the worst natural disaster to hit Japan in modern times. Nobody who has watched the events of recent days can fail to be moved by the unprecedented scope of the tragedy and its toll on human lives and property — a toll that continues to climb.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 18, 2011

Disaster clobbers a helper

By Hanns W. Maull, Liz Hampton and Raymond Woo

The massive earthquake and tsunami that rocked and ravaged large parts of northern Japan have caused near apocalyptic devastation to the land and the environment. The 9.0-magnitude shock, the largest ever recorded in the earthquake-prone country, was brutally magnified by massive tsunami waves that washed...

COMMENTARY

Mar 17, 2011

Calculating the impact of aerosols

By Michael Richardson and Thomas Biesheuvel

SINGAPORE — Scientists have developed an extensive understanding of the impact that carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other global warming gases have on Earth's climate.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2011

Longtime Arab myths versus today's realities

By Marwan Muasher

WASHINGTON — With Hosni Mubarak's ouster in Egypt — widely considered to have one of the region's most stable regimes until only recently — and Col. Moammar Gadhafi clinging to power in Libya, there is no clear end in sight to the turmoil sweeping across the Arab world. Protests have already toppled...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2011

Japan's immense challenge

By Kevin Rafferty

HONG KONG — Prime Minister Naoto Kan rightly called it the worst disaster to hit Japan since World War II. But the question now for Japan is whether the massive earthquake and tsunami that smashed the country on Friday can prove to be the earthmoving event that wakes up Japan's politicians to set the...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2011

Finding a way to make industrial policy work

By James Zhan

GENEVA — Industrial policy (IP) is back — or rather, back in fashion. Of course, it never really went away, even in countries formally adhering to free-market principles. But the postcrisis world — in which government intervention in the economy has gained greater legitimacy — will see more of...

COMMENTARY

Mar 16, 2011

The Libyan revolution's best hope? Egypt

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON — The Libyan revolution is losing the battle. Col. Moammar Gadhafi's army does not have much logistical capability, but it can get enough fuel and ammunition east along the coast road to attack Benghazi, Libya's second city, at some point in the next week or so. His army is not well trained...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2011

Tale of two defense policies

By Harsh V. Pant

LONDON — China has declared that its official defense budget for 2011 will rise by 12.7 percent from the previous year. Last year there was a lot of hoopla surrounding the fact that China had announced a mere 7.5 percent jump in defense budget. It was the first time since the 1980s that China's defense...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2011

Prospects for an integrated army in Nepal

By Joshi Ratala Dinesh Prasad

BEPPU, Oita Prefecture — Be it the Nepali Congress Rebellion in 1950-51 and 1961-62 or the movement for democracy in the 1990s, such events have had profound impacts on the political and socio-economic condition of the country.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2011

The environmental link to economic growth

By Vinod Thomas

WASHINGTON — The worldwide drive for higher incomes in the face of mounting environmental destruction has heightened the tension between growth and the environment.

COMMENTARY

Mar 14, 2011

Neocon 'shock and awe': the rise of redefined Arabs

By Ramzy Baroud

SEATTLE — A pervading sense of awe seems to be engulfing Arab societies. What is under way in the Arab world is greater than simply revolution in a political or economic sense. It is, in fact, shifting the very self-definition of what it means to be Arab, both individually and collectively.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.

How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan

By Megha Wadhwa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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