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COMMENTARY / World

Aug 28, 2006

No victor emerged from Lebanon war

By Edward N. Luttwak

WASHINGTON -- In the immediate aftermath of the October War of 1973, the Arab world rejoiced because the myth of Israeli invincibility had been shattered by Egypt's crossing of the Suez Canal and the Syrian offensive that swept across the Golan Heights. In Israel, there was harsh criticism of political...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 28, 2006

The fat, the starving, and global warming

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Being fat is the new normal, but it won't last. The global surge in overweight people is concentrated among lower-income city-dwellers, and some may choose to slim down as they climb further up the income scale. ("You can never be too rich or too slim.") But the real guarantee of a slimmer...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 27, 2006

An underclass returns -- and with it, what?

By Roger Pulvers

All indications are that Japan is reverting to prewar norms. I am not referring solely to the new nationalism, bolstered by Japan's increasingly aggressive military stances, but rather to the notion of social equality -- or inequality -- that is being created for its citizens today.

COMMENTARY

Aug 26, 2006

Politicians in fantasyland

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- Our leaders would do well to reread "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll. If they can suppress their vanity for a moment, they should recognize that they have much in common with the White Queen. When Alice declares that "one can't believe impossible things," the queen retorts...

COMMENTARY

Aug 25, 2006

Softening northern borders

By Ralph Cossa

MARIEHAMN, Finland -- It was cruel irony that the Aug. 16 killing of a Japanese fisherman by Russian security forces in the Northern Territories took place just as a group of Japanese and Russian scholars and former government officials were meeting with a group of Alanders to discuss possible creative...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 25, 2006

State glory: gulag of the Russian mind

By Nina Khrushcheva

NEW YORK -- It is now 15 years since the failed coup of August 1991 against Mikhail Gorbachev. At the time, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost were seen by Soviet hardliners as a sellout of communist Russia to the capitalist West. But it is now clear that the KGB and the military who launched...

COMMENTARY

Aug 24, 2006

New lessons in the Mideast

By David Howell

LONDON -- It was not meant to be like this. The plan, and the promise by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was that the operation would be over swiftly, the Hezbollah forces with their missiles would be surrounded, rooted out and crushed, the kidnapped Israeli soldiers would be returned, and southern...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 24, 2006

Focus on preventive diplomacy, not war

By George Papandreou and Piero Fassino, Jonas Gahr Store

PRAGUE -- Finally, the U.N. Security Council has unanimously agreed a resolution to end the crisis in Lebanon. Now, the first priority must be a full and immediate ceasefire to end the suffering of unarmed civilians and make way for peace. The international community must be guided in their actions by...

COMMENTARY

Aug 21, 2006

Fear of rivalry rules LDP

By Keizo Nabeshima

With the governing Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election a month away, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe has emerged as the overwhelming favorite to win the post, and hence to become the next prime minister.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 21, 2006

Can regional integration save Africa?

By Gabriel Nahimana

PRAGUE -- During the last quarter-century, global economic growth has soared, but Africa continued to lose ground. Indeed, the Continent's share of world exports fell from 4.6 percent in 1980 to 1.8 percent in 2000, and its share of world imports declined from 3.6 percent to 1.6 percent over the same...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Aug 21, 2006

Precious wetlands rapidly disappearing

By Hiroaki Sato

SUNSET BEACH, North Carolina -- Back to the barrier island where my wife and I spend two weeks of every summer, I think of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that dealt with the disposition of wetlands. The justices' opinions -- in what was called the most significant environmental case under new...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 21, 2006

Too little, too late for Russia

By David Wall

LONDON -- In his recent State of the Union speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the "most important [matter] for our country is the demographic problem." He said Russia's population is declining by 700,000 a year -- this from a base of 143 million. Russian demographic experts suggest that the...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

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