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COMMENTARY / World

Mar 31, 2006

Emotional clash of cultures

By Dominique Moisi

WARSAW -- Throughout the so-called war on terror, the notion of a "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West has usually been dismissed as politically incorrect and intellectually wrongheaded. Instead, the most common interpretation has been that the world has entered a new era characterized...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 30, 2006

Reshaping U.S.-ROK alliance

By Brad Glosserman and Scott Snyder

HONOLULU -- The U.S.-South Korea alliance is at a turning point. South Korea has become a modern, vibrant democracy and a dynamic economy with global reach. Despite the nuclear crisis with North Korea, inter-Korean reconciliation has taken root and South Korea feels confident enough to seek a more independent...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 30, 2006

Canberra-Jakarta ties sink

By Alan Goodall

SYDNEY -- Fragile relations between Indonesia and Australia have taken a nosedive, again, and Canberra is concerned that any sudden venting of anger in Jakarta may wreck years of painstaking efforts at building up mutual good will. The Indonesian ambassador has been recalled from Canberra "for consultations."...

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK

Mar 27, 2006

Ishibashi's 'alternative reality' for Japan

By Hiroaki Sato

NEW YORK -- A reader of my Jan. 30 column ("Another side to Japanese-Korean history") wrote to comment and, in the course of subsequent correspondence, wondered about an "alternative reality" or a "what if" in Japan's history before World War II. He had in mind, in particular, "Secretary (Cordell) Hull's...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 27, 2006

Hamas sets out to put first things first

By Daoud Kuttab

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- As it struggles to form a government for the Palestinian territories, Hamas seems to be clutching the biblical verses of Ecclesiastes rather than the desires of the Quartet (United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations), which is charged with trying to bridge...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 27, 2006

Building a better safety net for workers

By Robert J. Shiller

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- A lot of public attention and worry nowadays surrounds the new risks that globalization and information technology create for our wages and livelihoods. But there has been far less constructive discussion of new ideas about how to confront these risks. In fact, we might be losing...

COMMENTARY

Mar 27, 2006

No more tax money to U.S.

By Kiroku Hanai

The administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has played down Japanese public sentiment against the U.S. military presence, believing that most people approve of it in general but object when their own community is affected.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 26, 2006

One nation's icon carries a torch of conscience for all

By Roger Pulvers

On March 6, the Polish film and theater director Andrzej Wajda celebrated his 80th birthday. In fact, all of Poland celebrated it with him. I was in the country that week, and I have never before seen such total media interest in a cultural figure. Wajda is certainly Poland's "living national treasure."...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 25, 2006

Ukraine's watershed election

By Yuliya Tymoshenko

KIEV -- Ukraine's politics are not those of the steppe. Our voters cannot stroll in one direction during one poll, and in the opposite direction the next time they vote, without worrying about falling over the edge. Ukrainians are people of the watershed: We live on either one side or the other of a...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2006

Responding to new trends in Japanese studies abroad

By Kazuo Ogoura

The world is changing rapidly under the influence of globalization. At the same time, the political, economic and even academic environment surrounding Japanese studies outside Japan has changed a great deal. Traditional motives for studying Japan, such as curiosity in the exotic, the perception of Japan...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 22, 2006

War and poverty take a harsh toll on Iraqi children

By Amal Kashf Al-Ghitta

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's children have suffered more than just successive wars and economic sanctions. The loss of parents and family resources has boosted child labor, homelessness and inclinations toward violence and rebellion.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 20, 2006

Colonization obstructs peace

By Jimmy Carter

PLAINS, Georgia -- For more than a quarter century, Israeli policy has been in conflict with that of the United States and the international community. Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land, regardless of whether Palestinians had...

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

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