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November 26, 2024

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COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jun 20, 2002

Politics of homeland security

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- The specter of terrorism that has hung over America since Sept. 11 has created an enormous public demand for security. Homeland security has become a massive governmental program, a political issue, a growth industry, a rationale for all sorts of governmental spending and constitutional...

COMMENTARY

Jun 19, 2002

Key South Asia concern being ignored

By Ralph Cossa

HONOLULU -- Senior American envoys like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage deserve praise for their seemingly successful efforts to move India and Pakistan back from the brink of war once again. As history has brutally demonstrated, even a conventional armed...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 18, 2002

Australia tightens net against illegal aliens

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Now that the monsoon season is over, the huddled masses of Asia's worst conflict areas, notably Afghanistan and Iraq, are again looking abroad for refuge. As in past years, they see a big, empty island on the map and steer southeast. Unfortunately for them, the folks already here have other...

COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA

Jun 17, 2002

How to avert the risk of war with China

By Jean-pierre Lehmann

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In the rolling green countryside of West Sussex in South England, there is an estate called Wilton Park. Some readers of this column may be familiar with the place and the institution it has become: "Wilton Park conferences" occur throughout the year bringing together politicians,...

COMMENTARY

Jun 17, 2002

Cracks in a nonnuclear core

By Keizo Nabeshima

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's comment on Japan's three nonnuclear principles caused political confusion at home and deepened misunderstanding abroad.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 17, 2002

Algeria's liberation has lessons for Mideast

By Andrew Mack

VANCOUVER, British Colombia -- Israel's hopes that its massive operation on the West Bank would halt the terror bombing have died with a new wave of attacks. Many bomb-making facilities were destroyed in the operation, but Palestinian rage has increased and the slaughter continues.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 16, 2002

Preventing a new dark age

By Ramesh Thakur and Jayantha Dhanapala

On May 8 an American citizen with alleged ties to the al-Qaeda terror network was arrested on suspicion of plotting to build and detonate a radioactive "dirty" bomb in the United States. On May 31, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda of Japan -- the emotional touchstone of antinuclear sentiments for...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 16, 2002

War on terror to have Asian side effects

By Quek Ser Hwee and Michael J. Montesano

SINGAPORE -- Speaking earlier this month to the inaugural Asian Security Conference, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz suggested Washington's latest vision for a post-Cold War world. Held here under the auspices of London's International Institute of Strategic Studies, the conference brought...

COMMENTARY

Jun 15, 2002

Russia looks both East and West, for now

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- Last July, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, solemnly signed a landmark Treaty on Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation that was little short of a military alliance. Shortly before that, the two countries, together with Kazakstan, Tajikistan,...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2002

No winners in Shenyang case

By David Wall

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Now that a little time has gone by, and peoples' attention is distracted by the World Cup, it is time for a little quiet thinking about the implications of the Shenyang incident. This was the incident in which Chinese police forcibly removed five North Koreans from the Japanese...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2002

Developing Asia's publishing industry

By George Sioris

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- A very interesting conference took place earlier last month in Bangkok with the participation of leading publishers from around Asia. As with many such specialized events, its impact mainly reached people in the publishing industry rather than the public at large. But, because...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 15, 2002

Defense Agency deals democracy a blow

By Lawrence Repeta

The mushrooming scandal at Japan's Defense Agency highlights the ongoing struggle between advocates of free speech and government secrecy. The clumsy and duplicitous handling of this affair by the Koizumi administration leaves even the most cynical observers of government speechless.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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