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March 18, 2025
 

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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2008
Europeans draw wrong lesson from Munich
By Ian Buruma
NEW YORK — Seventy years ago this month in Munich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed a document that allowed Germany to grab a large chunk of Czechoslovakia. The so-called Munich Agreement would come to be seen as an abject betrayal of what Chamberlain termed "a far away country of...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2008
How EU should engage a born-again power
By Ivan Krastev
SOFIA — The post-Cold War order in Europe is finished, with Vladimir Putin its executioner. Russia's invasion of Georgia only marked its passing. Russia has emerged as a born-again 19th-century power determined to challenge the intellectual, moral and institutional foundations of the order.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2008
Bailout raises moral issues
By Robert J. Shiller
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The United States government's takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac constitutes a huge bailout of these institutions' creditors, whose losses have ballooned as house prices continue to plummet. With the government now fully guaranteeing Fannie's and Freddie's debts,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2008
Oily moves to compensate
By Gwynne Dyer
LONDON — Libya was the diplomatic crossroads of the planet last weekend: Condoleezza Rice made the first visit by a U.S. secretary of State in 55 years (to discuss a murky deal involving payments to American victims of terrorist attacks allegedly sponsored by Libya); radical Bolivian President Evo...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2008
Nepali 'democracy' unlikely to push peace
By Christopher Lingle and Christina Goldbaum
ATLANTA — Nepal's special assembly has chosen Maoist chief Prachanda as prime minister over Sher Bahadur Deuba, a three-time former prime minister from the Nepali Congress party.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 13, 2008
Mindanao peace process: so near, yet so far
By Julkipli Wadi
The Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that had been given preliminary approval by peace panels of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur on July 27 stands as the only agreement in the annals of the peace process in the Philippines that...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2008
Water management for the Mekong basin
By Michael Richardson
SINGAPORE — China says it remains a developing country despite its rapid rise in the league of global power. By some measures, it is now the world's third-biggest economy and second-largest exporter. However gauged, China is clearly a nation with increasing impact and influence, especially if you live...
COMMENTARY
Sep 12, 2008
The future of mini-states
By Hugh Cortazzi
LONDON — Russian recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is a cynical ploy aimed at annoying Georgians and their supporters in the West. If these two enclaves within Georgia deserve to be independent, why has Russia not granted independence to Chechnya or Dagestan?
COMMENTARY
Sep 11, 2008
China's Africa policy changing for the better
By Frank Ching
China refused to allow Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, to take part in the opening session of the Olympic Games, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The paper said Mugabe had traveled to Hong Kong but was then persuaded by China to go home.
COMMENTARY
Sep 11, 2008
Cameron eyes policy shift
By David Howell
David Cameron, the leader of Britain's Conservative opposition, is highly likely to be Britain's next prime minister when the general election comes in 12 to 18 months time. He is in effect the prime minister-in-waiting. His views about the international scene are therefore very important not just to...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2008
U.S. hedge funds: The sting is in the tail
By H. Peyton Young and Dean P. Foster
PHILADELPHIA — Imagine that you are shopping for a high performance car, but that you are not allowed to look under the hood. What's inside is a secret. Furthermore, you cannot find out how similar vehicles have performed, because there are none. Finally, the car carries no warranty.
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2008
Thailand: populism vs. privilege
By Gwynne Dyer
Thaksin Shinawatra is shaping up to be the Juan Peron of Thailand, with the significant difference that he is a rich Peron. The billions he earned in his telecom businesses enabled him to rise to the top of Thai politics — and he used his power to shift wealth and power systematically from the rich...
Private clubs quietly open in Tokyo for free-spending Chinese businesspeople
Sources say a hui suo — a private club, which in Japan caters mainly to Chinese businesspeople — will soon open on the upper floors of the Moutai Building in the Ginza district of Tokyo.
Electronic dictionary market shrinking in Japan
An electronic dictionary section at a mass retailer in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in 2005
Tokyo gears up for April launch of law against harassment by customers
Tokyo will soon require all companies in the city to make efforts to stop harassment by customers, such as by creating a manual on how to handle suspected cases.
IOC's Bach says Paris Games gender row was product of Russian fake news
IOC President Thomas Bach speaks during an interview in Pylos, Greece, on Saturday.
As it turns 70, LDP struggles to find its fountain of youth
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from left) cheers along with other members of the Liberal Democratic Party during the party's annual convention in Tokyo on March 9.
How Yoshinobu Yamamoto rebounded after his disastrous MLB debut
The Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto during training at Tokyo Dome on Monday
Japan’s youth climate activists still searching for a breakthrough
While climate demonstrations around the world often draw thousands of participants, in Japan such demonstrations rarely break the 100-person barrier.
As it turns 70, LDP struggles to find its fountain of youth
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from left) cheers along with other members of the Liberal Democratic Party during the party's annual convention in Tokyo on March 9.
As pollen season peaks, Japan's allergy struggle emerges from hibernation
Urbanization is amplifying pollen-related allergies as grasslands and soft soil give way to concrete and asphalt.
Drones, budgets and infighting: Taiwan's daunting defense challenges
Officials from Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), the Ministry of National Defense’s research arm, say the lessons from the Ukraine conflict are clear for the democratic island: drones and other autonomous systems are crucial for its defense.

Podcast

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

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo
By Alex K.T. Martin

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