[Ana Palacio] Restoring Europe's social contracts

The European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs recently held a high-level symposium on the “Quest for the Rule of Law.” Legal scholars, academics and practitioners gathered for an in-depth dialogue on the principle’s meaning and implementation within the European Union. But the challenge ahead is more fundamental:The rule of law is backsliding in Europe, jeopardizing democracy itself. Since World War II, liberal democracies have built and sustained their social contracts on three mu

Nov. 24, 2025

[Yoo Choon-sik] AI talent push meets flip-flop doubt

The recently announced “AI Talent Development Plans for All" is a truly sweeping initiative, broad enough to underscore the South Korean government’s drive to strengthen artificial intelligence capabilities nationwide. It is a vision that sees AI not merely as a technology, but as a universal competency that must be nurtured from kindergarten classrooms to the highest levels of postgraduate research. The initiative exemplifies South Korea's ambition to chart a grand national course, seeking to t

Nov. 24, 2025

[Lee Byung-jong] Korea’s unfit ambassadors

For South Korea’s newly elected presidents, ambassadorship has long been an ideal gift to bestow on friends and loyalists. Unlike other top government posts, ambassadorial positions do not require tough parliamentary confirmation hearings or extensive public scrutiny. This made them convenient rewards in the past, when military dictators handed out ambassadorships to fellow generals who supported their coups or autocracies. In more recent years, presidents have given these posts to politicians a

Nov. 21, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] Common sense between 55 and 101

The controversy over urban development near Jongmyo Shrine has become one of the most troubling cultural debates in Korea today. The damage is affecting Korea’s international reputation at a moment when the world is paying close attention to our cultural heritage. After the successful APEC Summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, where Korea presented itself as a nation that cherishes traditional culture, such a sudden regression in Seoul’s approach to heritage conservation is both bafflin

Nov. 20, 2025

[Arthur Herman] America’s coming boom

Where is America going? It depends on who you listen to. Some pundits see its economic outlook as gloomy, if not disastrous. They point out that the affordability issue, i.e. that Americans sense they are paying more for less, isn’t going away; the election of a socialist as mayor of New York City who campaigned precisely on that issue, indicates the opposite. And although the recent government shutdown has ended, President Trump’s economics chief Kevin Hassett predicts it will mean it cuts four

Nov. 20, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] Maximize AI, while not being controlled by it

Suddenly, artificial intelligence has become the subject of the moment. Every day, newspaper articles announce that the era of AI has come and that our future will depend on the new technology. Indeed, AI seems to already be ubiquitous in every nook and cranny of our society. It is already the case that AI operates on our smartphones, computers and cars. Soon, we will be living in the era of AI. In fact, AI has already become integrated into our daily lives as an indispensable tool and helpful p

Nov. 19, 2025

[Rosa Lowinger] A lasting scar of Trump’s America

Great government houses are never still. They grow, age and change with their nations, each alteration leaving a trace of the ideals and anxieties of its time. Architecture is the archive that never stops recording. To tear down a part of it is to edit the story of who Americans are as a nation. The recent demolition of the White House’s East Wing -- the most consequential alteration to that building in more than a century -- feels so profound, and so chilling precisely because it makes visible,

Nov. 19, 2025

[Christian Catalini] The trillion-dollar battle for money's operating system

The next great platform war has begun. It is over the fundamental rails of the global economy: money itself. As I argued in a recent talk on this topic, at stake is not just who processes payments, but who will set the rules for the future of commerce. Two starkly different models are emerging. The first, the "CorpChain," is a proprietary, closed-walled garden. This isn't a theoretical debate, it's a land grab happening in real-time. Mastercard is in advanced talks to acquire stablecoin infrastr

Nov. 18, 2025

[Grace Kao] The long and winding road to becoming a professor

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday and the end of the fall semester in the US, it is also a time of anxiety for Ph.D. students on the academic job market. Many more people with Ph.D.s aspire to be professors than there are positions. The road to becoming a professor is arduous, even for students at Ivy League institutions like the University of Pennsylvania, where I taught for 20 years, and at Yale University, where I’ve taught for eight years. All of us with tenure-track or tenured positio

Nov. 18, 2025

Germany cancels auction of Holocaust artifacts after backlash

BERLIN (AP) -- Poland‘s foreign minister said Sunday that an "offensive" auction of Holocaust artifacts has been canceled in Germany, relaying information from his German counterpart, following complaints from Holocaust survivors. Radoslaw Sikorski made the comments on the X platform, saying he and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul "agreed that such a scandal must be prevented." The top Polish diplomat thanked Wadephul for the information that the auction was canceled. Earlier, a Holocaust

Nov. 17, 2025

[Lee Kyong-hee] Jongmyo: The symbolism of its sacred space

Winter 1997. During those bewildering months, as South Korea sought an emergency bailout from the International Monetary Fund amid the Asian financial crisis, I wrote a book about the nation’s first UNESCO World Heritage sites. They included Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto, the Tripitaka Koreana and its storage halls at Haeinsa Temple, Hwaseong Fortress, Changdeokgung Palace and Jongmyo Shrine. These five monuments had been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1995, 23 years after t

Nov. 17, 2025

[Barry Eichengreen] Trump’s foreign economic policy in disarray

When it comes to US foreign economic policy, US President Donald Trump’s administration has two problems on its hands. Following what has become something of a pattern for this administration, both problems are of its own making. In South America, Trump & Co. are heavily exposed to a dubious effort to stabilize the Argentine peso, a task to which they have committed more than $20 billion. In Asia, they are engaged in an on-again-off-again trade war with China, in which Chinese President Xi Jinpi

Nov. 17, 2025

[Robert J. Fouser] Choosing green space over development

A Supreme Court ruling on Nov. 6 has thrust Jongmyo, the stately Confucian royal shrine in central Seoul, into the heart of a debate over heritage preservation and development. The court ruled in favor of a city ordinance to relax height restrictions near Jongmyo as part of a redevelopment plan for the area around Sewoon Sangga. The ruling prompted a strong response from the Korea Heritage Service, the central government agency in charge of heritage preservation. Jongmyo became one of the first

Nov. 14, 2025

[Shinichi Fukuda] Our hopes for the new prime minister in Japan

On Oct. 21, 2025, Sanae Takaichi became Japan's 104th prime minister and the country's first female leader. Takaichi is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has recently lost public support due to political funding scandals and has suffered successive historic defeats in major elections. Takaichi, who served as a close aide to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and has clearly articulated conservative policy stances, is expected to rebuild the party's waning support and political streng

Nov. 13, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] The difference between SSN and SSBN

The recent agreement between South Korea and the United States regarding the development of a nuclear-powered submarine has sparked intense debate at home and abroad. Some hail the decision as a long-awaited milestone, arguing that it strengthens South Korea’s deterrence posture against North Korea’s nuclear threat and signals that Seoul is finally acquiring the prestige of a major power. Others, however, warn that it may look like a step toward nuclear proliferation, undermining decades of Kore

Nov. 13, 2025