[Andrew Sheng] What do we owe our grandchildren?

Coming back from an extended conference on gross national happiness in Bhutan, which is one of the first carbon negative countries in the world, I became aware that intergenerational justice may be one of the most important moral questions we face today. The world is drowning in debt. According to the IMF, global debt amounted to $250 trillion in 2023, or 237 percent of GDP, with global private debt at more than $150 trillion or 143 percent of GDP. If global private wealth is now estimated at ov

July 8, 2025

[Lim Woong] Instagram’s missing ‘dislike’ button

Ever wonder why Instagram has no “dislike” button? You’re not alone. Maybe you’ve asked yourself why it’s all hearts, thumbs-up and smiley faces — but never a simple “your-post-is-no-fun-at-all.” It’s not a glitch. It’s a design. Welcome to the dark side of digital addiction. In an age where smartphones practically live in our hands, digital addiction is far from hyperbole. It covers everything from endless scrolling on Instagram and compulsively watching YouTube Shorts to binge gaming and obses

July 8, 2025

[Martin Schram] Peace through power — It’s electric!

For several hold-your-breath weeks, as spring sizzled into summer, the nuclear dealmakers of President Donald Trump’s USA and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Iran seemed astonishingly close to a deal. So close that it seemed they’d soon reach out and seize the deal. But no one was willing to reach out. First, on May 13, Iran’s chief proposer, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, proposed solving the nuclear bomb fears by creating something few of us had considered: a regional nuclear pow

July 7, 2025

[Yoo Choon-sik] Uncertainty rises as AI law decrees miss schedule

South Korea has missed its self-imposed deadline of June 30 to disclose draft versions of enforcement decrees and rules for its basic artificial intelligence law. The National Assembly overwhelmingly passed the AI Basic Act — officially the Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Establishment of Foundation for Trust — in late December 2024. It took markets around the world by surprise, given that the country was quickly slipping into one of the worst political turmoils i

July 7, 2025

[Lee Byung-jong] Singapore epitomizes soft power

The late Harvard professor Joseph Nye famously coined the term "soft power" to describe a nation's ability to influence others through attraction rather than coercion. As he put it, soft power is based on “power with” rather than “power over” — the capacity to build partnerships and coalitions, enhancing a country’s global standing beyond its military or economic might. Few nations exemplify this idea as clearly as Singapore. From its humble beginnings as a small fishing village and trading post

July 4, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] Why do we need the Ministry of Unification?

Few policy debates in recent memory have struck such a sensitive nerve as the question now emerging in South Korean political discourse: Should the Ministry of Unification be renamed? The idea, once considered fringe, is now circulating more seriously in the early stages of the Lee Jae Myung administration. Supporters argue that the word “Unification” has lost relevance in today's geopolitical climate and that a more pragmatic label is needed. But for many Koreans, including myself, this is not

July 3, 2025

[Ahmet Davutoglu] NATO’s Trump dilemma

NATO’s summit in The Hague came at a time of extraordinary tension. Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Europe of free riding on US defense spending, raising serious concerns about the health of the Atlantic alliance. His decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities just three days before the summit — in coordination with Israel and without informing America’s NATO allies — has only intensified those fears. Trump’s strikes against Iran evoked memories of the pos

July 3, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] Do not wage 'war against the academy'

In the 1960s, the great literary critic Leslie A. Fiedler wrote an epoch-making essay, “The War against the Academy.” In the article, Fiedler advocated the free spirit of the 1960s against the trend toward institutionalism in literary criticism, such as the formalistic New Criticism, and proposed psychological and mythological approaches to literature instead. Such approaches, Fiedler wrote, were a “revolt against school and in particular against the University. Given the opportunity, the writer

July 2, 2025

[Shang-Jin Wei] Can Asia, Europe save world economy?

Countries around the world are confronting the same confluence of shocks. The continued breakdown of the global trading system, owing to a volatile US tariff policy, is now accompanied by the risk of disruptions to trade routes and oil production from military conflicts in the Middle East. Moreover, concerns about the safety of dollar-denominated assets are growing, because US President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill is expected to erode America’s already-weak fiscal position. At

July 1, 2025

[Grace Kao] Life as a K-pop trainee begins at hagwon

Most children in Korea spend part of their daily lives at a hagwon, or a private academy sometimes referred to as a “cram school.” While the majority of these institutions offer classes in academic subjects such as English and math, some prepare students for an audition to be a K-pop trainee. I visited one last month and was stunned by what I witnessed. Modern K Music Academy has five campuses — Seoul, Suwon, Bundang, Yeongtong and Incheon. I visited its largest, the Suwon Campus. The academy cu

July 1, 2025

[Lee Kyong-hee] Recalibrate moves for peace in Korea

One day in late 2017, after work at the Pentagon, then-US Secretary of Defense James Mattis quietly slipped into the National Cathedral in Washington. Mattis directed his security detail to allow him to enter alone so he could pray and reflect. “What do you do if you’ve got to do it?” Mattis asked himself. “You’re going to incinerate a couple million people.” He had been in enough wars to know what one on the Korean Peninsula would entail. Now the question for him was how to fulfill his duty kno

June 30, 2025

[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea’s AI goals

New presidents in South Korea stir a wave of new policies and big national goals. As the country has developed, new presidents have shifted away from big national goals in favor of a longer list of policy initiatives. President Lee Jae Myung’s all-out push to improve AI competitiveness represents a shift back to big goals. The president aims to make South Korea one of the top three most competitive nations in AI by the end of his term in 2030. Like many previous big goals, this is ambitious but

June 27, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] Is the specter of 9/11 rising again?

US President Donald Trump has once again shaken the global order — this time through a direct military strike on some targets in Iran: nuclear facilities that produce enriched uranium. The bunker-buster assault, launched under Trump's direction, marked a rare instance of a direct US attack on Iranian soil. Although the immediate result was a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the strategic and ethical implications of the strike are far more disturbing than they first appeared. Following the US s

June 26, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] How to prevent the second Korean War

The Korean War broke out 75 years ago on June 25, 1950. Those who fought in the war, if not already dead, would now be in their mid-90s, and those who were born at that time are now at least 75 years old. That means that today, no one under 75 in Korea experienced the atrocity of the Korean War. In that sense, the Korean War has become a “forgotten war” not only internationally, but even in Korea, too. However, we must not forget the soldiers, both domestic and foreign, who fought for our freedo

June 25, 2025

[Grace Kao] Love is in the stars with K-pop’s n.SSign

I first noticed fifth-generation K-pop group n.SSign on Music Bank when they performed “Love, Love, Love, Love, Love” in April 2024. It’s bright and irresistible. How can anyone make 5 types of finger/hand hearts in 3 seconds? Later, they won the weekly award on Music Bank for “Love Potion.” This song uses an orchestral hit and a rhythm reminiscent of New Jack Swing. I was happy to see a win by a nearly rookie group from a small company. They looked genuinely shocked. They cried. Recently, I spe

June 24, 2025