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COMMENTARY / World

Jan 27, 2009

North Korean crisis heating up

By Michael Richardson

SINGAPORE — Will North Korea be the Obama administration's first Asian crisis? Pyongyang has recently been cranking up its bellicose rhetoric, declaring that it would maintain its "status as a nuclear weapons state" and "smash" South Korea's government in an "all-out confrontation" for tying aid to...

COMMENTARY

Jan 26, 2009

A return to common sense

By Kiroku Hanai

Attention from all corners of the world is focused on Barack Obama, who was inaugurated as the first African- American president of the United States. As the sole superpower since the Cold War ended in 1989, America has often irritated other countries for choosing to pursue the path of a unilateralist...

COMMENTARY

Jan 26, 2009

Recalling the one who mixed politics, poetry

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK — At a time when we plainly see the negative effects of politics and greed in the life of nations, it is important to remember Pablo Neruda, a Chilean writer whom Gabriel Garcia Marquez called "the greatest poet of the 20th century — in any language." He was an artist who knew very well...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 25, 2009

Sarkozy's Western banner

By Dominique Moisi

PARIS — From the Caucasus in August 2008 to the Middle East in January 2009, is France under President Nicolas Sarkozy attempting to incarnate what might be called "the West by default," making maximum use of the window of opportunity opened by America's presidential transition?

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 25, 2009

Thai pendulum swings to the Establishment

By Thitinan Pongsudhirak

BANGKOK — Thailand's political pendulum has now swung all the way back to an era that existed before the rise of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2001. What transpired under Thaksin during 2001-2005 is being undone and redone. Whether the new Democrat Party-led government of Prime Minister...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jan 25, 2009

Her poems speak sublimely of Akiko Yosano's life of many passions

By Roger Pulvers

Her hair at twenty Flowing long and black Through the teeth of her comb Oh beautiful spring Extravagant spring! My skin is so soft Fresh from my bath It pains me to see it covered By the fabric Of an everyday world

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Jan 25, 2009

Repercussions of war gone bad

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK — A young friend of mine, Rie Nakano, who did some archival research for a university professor, has given me a small batch of documents prepared by the Special Higher Police, known by the Japanese acronym Tokko. (I had told Rie that my father was an officer of the dreaded "thought police.")...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 22, 2009

Can Hamas leaders win the peace?

By Mohammad Yaghi

WASHINGTON — For generations to come, the Palestinians will remember the horrific war in Gaza with pain and bitterness. But what cannot yet be seen is how Palestinians will view Hamas. Whether Hamas can claim a victory — and whether Palestinians will believe them will be determined by the type of...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 22, 2009

America's exits also produce positive change

By Bennett Ramberg

LOS ANGELES — As Barack Obama's administration debates the pace and consequences of withdrawal from Iraq, it would do well to examine the strategic impact of other American exits in the final decades of the 20th century. Although American commitments to Lebanon, Somalia, Vietnam and Cambodia differed...

COMMENTARY

Jan 22, 2009

China plays maritime chess

By Brahma Chellaney

The start of Chinese patrols in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden is intended to extend China's naval role and presence far from its shores while demonstrating, under United Nations rules of engagement, a capability to conduct complex operations in distant waters.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 21, 2009

U.S. chance to make fresh start in the Muslim world

By Maleeha Lodhi

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — President Barack Obama was the world's favored candidate in what was America's first global election. The key question is how the Obama administration will tap this rare good will to re-establish U.S. credibility and repair its reputation. How Obama manages issues in the Muslim world...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 20, 2009

Coordinate a global stimulus for this crisis

By Juan Somavia and Kemal Dervis

GENEVA — As recession spreads around the world, the global production networks that arose with the globalization of the world economy have become sources of cutbacks and job losses. Postponing purchases of new winter coats in the United States means job losses in Poland or China. These losses then...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.

Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

Cainz enriches lives and communities through DIY

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