Is TTP aimed at thwarting China?
Editor’s note: The US is touting the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TTP), a proposed trade agreement linking Asian and American economies, as a way to foster greater economic integration and propel growth for members. Some analysts argue that it is clearly targeted at a rising China, while others say it does not exclude China. Japanese economist Takashi Terada […]
Sherif Adel: Comics aren’t for kids only
Egyptians are known for their sense of humor, who laughs at almost anything. In many times, this humor is considered a weapon with its own mechanism. That’s what comics and caricature artists do, they put their own ideas and beliefs and ideals into these little dialogue boxes with its unique characters and it’s identical to […]
Japan’s excess liquidity worries neighbors
Editor’s note: Japan ushered in a new era of economic policy with new governor of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda at the helm, while Asian neighbors looked on warily. Kuroda came up with plans to unleash a torrent of liquidity designed to wash away decades of Japan’s economic underperformance. Economists herald the moves as […]
N. Korea’s bluffing works again
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING North Korea has scored another brilliant diplomatic success. It has scared the world and created a sense of acute international crisis out of nothing. In the last two weeks, Seoul has been flooded with international journalists most of whom have come to report on the “growing tensions between the two Koreas”. […]
What N. Korea means to America and China
Editor’s note: In the wake of the recent crisis on the Korean Peninsula, shifting politics between U.S. and China has been a center of attention. Following article published on the April 13 issue of The Economist is one way to look at this issue. While neither America nor China wants a war for now, America worries […]
Taiwan’s middle-income trap
Editor’s note: Taiwan’s economy, built on an export-oriented manufacturing sector, was once a powerhouse of Asia’s emerging economies. But over the past decade or so, growth in personal income has slowed considerably and the Taiwanese economic miracle has begun to fade. The key to reviving the economy lies in promoting Taiwan’s long neglected services sector, […]
Grandson Kim: Who laughs last?
In the 1940s, the German leader Adolf Hitler was going on building his Greatest Germania; a target that was not accepted by his far enemies or by his competing neighbors. The survival of the better economically and scientifically Hitler, compared by Europe’s countries, meant that there will be a fierce power that does not forgive […]
Ending North Korea’s gamesmanship
Editor’s note: The crisis on the Korean peninsula has heightened to the bitter end. Here’s a view from Singapore’s The Strait Times to address the issue. It never is wise to discount renewed conflict on the Korean peninsula, despite the latest brinkmanship showing a familiar pattern. If the military moves had happened in Kim Jong […]
Mazen Maarouf: The Arab Dictators create their intellectuals
He is one of the creative voices of Arab poetry. He worked for several newspapers in Lebanon as for some newspapers abroad. Belonging to a Palestinian 1948 refugee family, (b. 1978) lived and studied in Beirut to hold a BS degree in general chemistry at Lebanese University, Faculty of Sciences. His latest collective poetry book […]
A cold war waiting ahead?
Editor’s note: The current wholesale leadership transition across Northeast Asia comes at a time of renewed tension over North Korea’s belligerence, China’s more aggressive posture and the American “pivot” toward Asia. At stake in current diplomatic maneuvering, writes Gilbert Rozman on the spring 2013 issue of Global Asia, is whether the region will turn toward […]