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COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2012

Whose sovereignty is it anyway?

By Javier Solana

Despite the huge sums expended to write down Greece's foreign debt, there has been an outcry of censure against "interference" with the country's national sovereignty.

COMMENTARY

Mar 19, 2012

Color GDP growth green

By Takamitsu Sawa

It is often said that the 21st century is the "century of the environment." This means two things: One is that the environmental problems of this planet, especially climate change and global warming, have become so serious that they are attracting more people's attention; and the other is that environmental...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2012

Syrian crisis shadowed by outcome in Libya

By John J. Metzler

As the conflict in Syria churns out a ghastly human carnage, diplomatic efforts to halt the violence are shadowed by last year's intervention in the Libyan conflict, which resulted in a six-month-long military operation to topple a tyrant.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 19, 2012

Authoritarian democracy looking less Asian

By Sergei A. Karaganov

The world is being shaken by tectonic changes almost too numerous to count. The economic crisis is accelerating the degradation of international governance and supranational institutions amid a shift of economic and political power to Asia.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 18, 2012

There may be no time like the present — but the present's no time at all

By Roger Pulvers

"Japan is so small: What's the hurry?" This catchphrase, from a road-safety campaign in 1973, was created to help Japanese people slow down. In those days it was common to see drivers racing up to lights, people sprinting through a station to catch a train, or running and dodging down a sidewalk so as...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 17, 2012

U.S. soldiers consumed by wars without end

By Robert H. Scales

I guess I knew it would eventually come down to this: Blame the U.S. Army's institutions in some way for the horrific and senseless slaughter of 16 innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar, allegedly by an infantry noncommissioned officer (NCO). In their search for a villain, the media seems to be focusing...

COMMENTARY

Mar 17, 2012

Nuclear agenda after 3/11

By Ramesh Thakur

A year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, all but two of the country's 54 nuclear reactors are shut down. The Japanese people remain confused, apprehensive and distrustful of government statements and reassurances. The future of the nuclear power industry...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 16, 2012

Is Burma's reintegration with the West for real?

By John J. Metzler

In a world beset by war, ethnic conflict and humanitarian disasters, Burma (aka Myanmar) seems one of those rare places where diplomats can say they are making a positive difference.

COMMENTARY

Mar 15, 2012

Brace for China's impending crash

By Gwynne Dyer

Building a skyscraper is the ultimate expression of economic confidence, and more than half of the 124 skyscrapers currently under construction in the world are being built in China. But confidence is often based on nothing more than faith, hope and cheap credit, and a frenzy of skyscraper-building is...

COMMENTARY

Mar 15, 2012

Ocean acidification: another problem with CO₂ emissions

By Michael Richardson

We tend to measure time by the span of a human life, making a century seem like an era and a millennium a mega-stretch of time. In this perspective, a million years is an eternity. So it can be revealing to consider our place in geologic history measured in hundreds of millions of years.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 15, 2012

Europe's trust deficit undermines crisis resolution

By Barry Eichengreen

There is no shortage of talk nowadays about Europe's deficits and the need to correct them. Critics point to governments' gaping budget deficits. They cite the southern European countries' chronic external deficits. They highlight the eurozone's institutional deficits — a single currency and a central...

COMMENTARY

Mar 14, 2012

Japan's cautionary tale for the U.S.

By Robert Samuelson

Since the financial crisis, a shadow has hovered over the U.S. economy: Japan. Could what happened there happen to us? The bursting of Japan's real estate and stock bubble in the early 1990s has had lasting consequences: a "lost decade" (actually, two) of meager growth and weak job markets. Though hardly...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.

As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

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