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December 22, 2024
 

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Barak Barfi
Syrian President Bashar Assad's downfall stemmed from his failure to reform the country's corrupt, sectarian regime and an economy ravaged by war, leaving his government unable to withstand the recent rebel offensive.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2024
Syria’s kleptocratic rule and a house of cards
Like the fictional mafia family, Assad’s regime relied on kickbacks from wealthy business owners and shaking down foreigners.
A Palestinian girl searches the remains of a house in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, that was destroyed during the recent Israeli-Hamas fighting on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2023
What's next after Hamas' deadly border raid?
The attack on Israel mirrors that of the Yom Kippur War. As in 1973, Israel has much soul-searching to do, but the outcome could differ considerably.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2022
Biden’s return to realism in Saudi Arabia
Contrary to critics' claims, U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to visit Saudi Arabia does not amount to a destabilizing display of American weakness.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2018
The U.S.-Saudi relationship after the Khashoggi affair
Common interests and mutual dependence will almost certainly prevail over the desire to hold the Saudis to higher standards.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2017
Trump's Middle East supporters
Donald Trump's embrace of some Arab leaders, while leaving others alone, suits most Middle East governments quite well.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2016
Obama's Syria policy stokes smoldering conflicts
The Kurds and Turks who were meeting in 2012 are now in each other's crosshairs, and the Obama administration is stuck in yet another Middle Eastern quagmire.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2016
Red Sea island sale underlines Egypt's weakness
Egypt's facade of regional greatness came crashing down when it relinquished two islands to Saudi Arabia in exchange for aid.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2015
This is no time to abandon Yemen
To ensure that the recent overthrow of its government by the Shiite Houthi rebel movement does not deal Yemen the lethal blow that it has avoided so far, the international community must not abandon the country in what may be its hour of greatest need.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2014
Gadhafi casts a long shadow
Libya's leaders — and their Western benefactors — must realize that only modernization of Libya's state and society — the agenda that Moammar Gadhafi pursued, albeit in a perverted form — will ensure the country's survival.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2013
The narrative plot against Syria
America must focus on unifying Syria's bickering rebels before it can persuade Syrians that the campaign to destroy chemical weapons is not aimed at imposing a neo-colonial order.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013
Co-opting militias takes priority over Benghazi
As the United States struggles to understand last September's attack on its diplomatic mission in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, a formal investigation has not even been opened in Libya — and likely never will be.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2012
Libya's unwilling revolutionaries
Egypt is not the only place where the bright hopes of the Arab Spring are fading. From attacks against Western governments to ethnic clashes in remote desert oases, Libya's revolution is faltering.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2011
Rebuilding the ruins of post-Gadhafi Libya
With the creation of a new government, Libya's leaders should finally be able to focus on organizing the transition from the authoritarian state that they inherited to the more pluralistic one they envisage. But are they really able and willing to achieve that goal?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2011
Libya faces period of reliance on foreign help
Six months after Libyan rebels took up arms against the country's leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, they have finally toppled him.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2011
Just how new is Egypt's 'new' foreign policy?
In the months since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, his successors have signaled a shift in foreign policy by reaching out to former adversaries. Egypt's government has welcomed Iranian diplomats and embraced the Palestinian group Hamas.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2011
Regime clash is personal
SANAA — When Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered his military March 18 to fire on peaceful protesters calling for his resignation, he sealed his fate. A wave of military, government and diplomatic defections, led by his longtime ally First Armored Brigade Commander General Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2011
The battle for Bahrain
MANAMA — The fervor for change that inspired revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt is now rocking Bahrain. But the uprising in Manama differs from the mass protests that turned out longtime rulers in North Africa. Indeed, sectarian fault lines, together with the security forces' complete fealty to the monarchy,...
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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