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November 22, 2024
 

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Glyn Ford
COMMENTARY
Nov 23, 2005
Neocons absconded with round five
BRUSSELS -- The six-party talks, which initially began in August 2003 to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, reconvened in Beijing on Nov. 9, then adjourned three days later inconclusively. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2005
Believe what you will in the new Tibet
BRUSSELS -- Any visit to Tibet is liable to leave you breathless. At Tibetan altitudes, oxygen is only 60 percent of what it is at sea level, with the result that it takes several days to acclimate. Yet it is clear from the start that Tibetan reality, at least on the surface, is very different from its...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2005
Coming in from the cold
BRUSSELS -- In a vital move toward securing greater stability, North Korea announced last week it would return to the six-party talks in Beijing with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to try to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. The breakdown in negotiations had...
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2005
A tale of two constitutions
BRUSSELS -- On Sunday the world watched as the French electorate voted on whether to approve the new European constitution, and it will watch once again Wednesday when Holland holds a similar referendum. Both results will help determine the future direction and role of the European Union in the world....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2005
Pyongyang under EU's wing
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The European Union is increasingly showing a new independent stance on foreign-policy issues as the logic of its industrial and economic integration plays out in the international arena.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2005
Forging an alternative to U.S. hegemony
BRUSSELS -- At a series of meetings around the left-leaning World Parliamentary Forum (WPF) held late last month in Porto Alegre, Brazil, there was a strong case made for the necessity of building a new economic and political partnership between the European Union and South America.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2005
Foggy North Korean shuffle
BRUSSELS -- Recent events in North Korea have been interpreted in various ways and, generally, the wish has been father to the thought. The truth is difficult to discern, but indications are that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has placed himself firmly behind a reform program that may finally bring...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2004
EU frittering away influence in Korea
BRUSSELS -- One of the last best hopes for securing a solution to the current crisis on the Korean Peninsula is being killed by U.S. politicking and EU penny- pinching. U.S. neoconservatives are determined to drive North Korea into a corner, while the European Union bickers over "small change"' rather...
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2004
China pushes for new order
LONDON -- A new Chinese diplomacy is emerging from Beijing. Traditionally reactive to global events, China now sees itself forced to take on a proactive role in world affairs. The revolutionary phase of Chinese foreign policy is dead; now pragmatism has taken center-stage.
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2004
Election shows Indonesia has come of age
BRUSSELS -- All the appearances are that Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy and largest Muslim state, has come of age, with the consolidation this year of a democracy that was reborn after 44 years in 1999.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2004
Slow progress for Pyongyang
BRUSSELS -- In July 2002, North Korea instituted wage and price reforms that officially introduced the market into the economy. Such change had been on the horizon since the famine of the late 1990s, driven by a certain inevitability as the distribution system started to creak and stutter. Informal --...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2004
Kashmir ripe for a solution
BRUSSELS -- The dispute over Kashmir has soured Indo-Pakistani relations since 1947 when, with the partition of India, the Hindu ruler of a mainly Muslim principality dithered his way to war. By the time he finally chose India, after having signed the formal accession, Indian tanks and troops were driving...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 27, 2004
North Korea's likely arsenal
NORTH KOREA'S WEAPONS PROGRAMMES: A Net Assessment, by International Institute for Strategic Studies staff. Palgrave Macmillan, 80pp., 2004, $90 (paper). To America's hard men of the right, North Korea harbors a full and fearsome array of weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, and the willingness to sell...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2004
Few surprises in EU elections
BRUSSELS -- The European parliamentary elections June 13 turned out largely as forecast. Despite a sharp fillip in Britain's voter turnout, spurred by the rise of the anti-European U.K. Independence Party, or UKIP, voter turnout as a whole continued its generation-long decline across Europe, with less...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2004
European Parliament signals right turn
LONDON -- This weekend the European Union faces its five-year parliamentary makeover as voters across an enlarged union go to the polls. Results will be shaped by three impulses:
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2004
Changing a regime beats regime change
BRUSSELS -- North Korea is changing, embracing the market. Colorful stalls that sell all manner of mundane goods, from food to flowers, are blossoming along Pyongyang's streets. The local Tong-Il market is thronged with customers haggling and buying a cornucopia of products. Another new market in central...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2004
Resist the attempts to recognize Taiwan
TAIPEI -- The Cold War may be over in Europe, but it is very much still with us in Asia. The North-South division on the Korean Peninsula is still possibly the world's most dangerous political stand-off. Not far behind is the tension between China and Taiwan. A civil war between the two was frozen just...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2004
Chance to defuse Kashmir
LONDON -- The last dispute left from the end of the British Empire -- the Kashmir question -- may finally be en route to resolution. The unilateral cease- fire declared by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in November along the de facto border, the Line of Control (LOC), and then seconded by India,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2003
A chance for Europe to stand on its own
LONDON -- Disneyland, the Kennedy Space Center and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were all on the agenda during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's visit to Orlando, Florida, this month. Missing were members of the U.S. Congress. They weren't in Istanbul 12 months ago -- apparently because of problems with their...
EDITORIALS
Oct 25, 2003
N. Korea: down but not out
BRUSSELS -- In the middle of Pyongyang, a new building attracts attention and customers. The Tong Il market is thronged with thousands of North Koreans haggling and buying from an extensive array of products. Fresh meat and dried fish, Spanish oranges and North African dates, suits, skirts, shoes and...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

Podcast

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By Kathryn Wortley

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