Once US President-elect Joe Biden’s administration has made the relatively easy decisions to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, remain in the World Health Organization, and attempt to reboot the World Trade Organization, it will confront three key foreign-policy issues. In order of importance, they are China, China, and China. Biden’s dilemma is that China has become too deviant to cooperate with fully, too big to contain or ignore, and too connected to decouple from. So, what prin

A twisty, narrow way in the cramped heart of Vienna’s oldest quarter, a busy street in an upscale neighborhood of Tehran and remote woods in Nigeria seem unlikely to share a theme or have relevance for the incoming Biden administration. As Viennese were enjoying their last night out in the little bars of the Innere Stadt on Nov. 2, before another COVID lockdown started, the music and good times were suddenly punctuated by the sharp staccato of gunfire. A young radical Islamist ran through

In 1998, then-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright famously defined the United States as “the indispensable nation,” declaring that, “We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future.” Two decades later, the US remains the indispensable nation. And yet, rather than seeing into the future, it has lately seemed to have its eyes closed. Does Joe Biden’s victory in this month’s presidential election mean the US is re-opening them? One thi

Ten years and ten months ago, US President Barack Obama announced in his 2010 State of the Union address that it was time for austerity. “Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions,” he explained. “The federal government should do the same.” Signaling his willingness to freeze government spending for three years, Obama argued that, “Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacr

Last week, Google announced it would change its storage policy for Google Photos, which is now being used by more than 1 billion people across the globe. Simply put, it will end its free unlimited photo storage service from June, 2021. To back up more photos, users have to sign up for a paid plan. I was neither shocked nor disappointed. I had already seen Google and other big tech companies calling it quits on their “innovative” services overnight. They didn’t -- and never w

The recent US election produced a mixed result. As expected, Joe Biden won the presidency, thus adding Donald Trump’s name to the list of defeated presidents. Down-ballot elections for the Senate, House of Representatives, governors and state houses, however, proved disappointing for Democrats, as Republicans beat expectations at every level. The results show that voters wanted a change at the top, but within the context of centrist moderation. Of all the races in play, the most surprisin

The world now seems likely to have at least two effective vaccines against COVID-19 with Monday’s announcement of positive early data from Moderna Therapeutics’s 30,000-person clinical trial. The result comes a week after Pfizer and BioNTech revealed a protection rate of more than 90 percent against disease. Moderna slightly one-upped its rivals, estimating that its shot is 94.5 percent effective at preventing COVID-19. Both results are highly impressive for inoculations developed at

Confusion in the US presidential election passed two weeks since the Nov. 3 voting with Donald Trump still refusing to accept Joe Biden’s victory despite the final electoral votes of 232 and 306. Korean President Moon Jae-in called President-elect Biden for 14 minutes last week to congratulate him on his win. The New York Times summed up: Trump falsely maintains he would have won without widespread voter irregularities. In fact, top election officials across the country have said that th

Recently, US President-elect Joseph Biden announced, “I’m telling world leaders that America is back.” In response, world leaders applauded his message, saying, “Welcome back, America.” As America is back, we might as well ponder, “What can we expect from America and what lies ahead of us in the Biden era?” At his memorable victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware, President-elect Biden promised several things in response to the complex problems America

If you wanted a demonstration of how the world’s largest free trade area is likely to fall short of expectations, you could do worse than look at the customs sheds at Shanghai’s Pudong airport. As final preparations for signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership pact, or RCEP, were being made earlier this month, several metric tons of Australian lobster were being delayed at the Chinese border for several days — far longer than the six-hour time frame for perishab

“So when our Sickness, and our Poverty Had greater wants than we could well supply; Strict Orders did but more enrage our grief, And hinder in accomplishing relief.” That’s how the British poet George Wither explained a spreading rebellion against social-distancing rules. Seeing quarantines and lockdowns as unfair and tyrannical punishments, people were taking to the streets. The year was 1625, the place was London, the disease was plague. The same psychology brought some 20

Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States has seriously weakened authoritarian and populist governments around the world. For independent global powers like Russia, Brazil and Turkey, Donald Trump’s departure need not amount to a complete tragedy. But for the current governments of Poland, Hungary and Serbia -- and perhaps Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom, too -- it is a veritable disaster. Not surprisingly, each of these smaller players has greeted Biden’s el

America’s allies should be forgiven if they are confused about where American foreign policy is headed. Who isn’t, given the go-it-alone recklessness of Donald Trump’s presidency? Over the past three years, Trump has sowed strategic chaos, and his foreign policy, if one can call it that, brought new meaning to incoherence. President-elect Joe Biden will be better almost by default. But has Trump changed America so much that the world cannot count on it ever being normal again?

The grinding recovery from the epic global recession has generated a deep divide within Asia: Economies in the north are ascendant and their once faster-growing southern neighbors are mired in a deep funk. The chasm can be seen in recent gross domestic product numbers. China’s recovery hastened, and Taiwan returned to growth last quarter. South Korea’s better-than-forecast results suggest it’s not far behind. The contrast with once flashy emerging markets is stark. Far from f

The first time I met Kevin L. O’Rourke the Columban priest had just won a prize for his translation of “The Poetry of John” by Chang Yong-hak, a short story depicting postwar existentialism in South Korean society. That was in November 1971, the second year of the Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards given by the Korea Times, the only such honors at that time. By then, awareness had ripened that exemplary translations of Korean literary works should be recognized. Yasu