In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

When times are tough, it’s difficult to settle into a charitable mood. At the mention of global aid, people grumble that we can’t even afford to care for our needy at home. But as with individual lives, a nation needs to look beyond immediate concerns in forging a path for the future.

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South Korea’s name and role is being recognized on the world stage because of its economic and political accomplishments. Hosting the Olympic Games in 1988 and the World Cup in 2002 shed a spotlight on our progress in industrialization and democracy. Chairing the G-20 summit talks in Seoul next November accentuates the country’s rising political [...]

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We welcome President Barack Obama with open arms, not just out of customary habit among friends. South Koreans share the world’s interest in President Obama’s global activities because he embodies a new path for the United States in international relations as well as in ties with old allies like us.

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History will record November 2008 as the crucial turning point for launching a new global order. No one knows what would exactly be the form of that order, but everyone seems to be in agreement that the existing international order cannot be sustained in light of two stunning developments. First, troubles in the U.S. financial [...]

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If we want to maintain a special alliance with the United States under Obama, there is an urgent need to find shared values that both nations want to pursue. An empire’s decline or fall depends mainly on its capacity for change and innovation. If this becomes paralyzed, the nation falls. The Roman Empire is a [...]

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