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Asia

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13. Song Kyung-jin

The urea water crisis and trust-building diplomacy

A “urea water” crisis has swept through Korea and its ripple effects are still very much underway. For industrial use, urea is a byproduct of the combustion of natural gas and coal. Korea has borne the brunt of China's recent export ban on urea, as it depends on the neighboring country for almost all of its urea imports. From January to September of this year, Korea imported 97.6 percent of its urea from China, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy here.

2021-11-21 15:58

Candidates, show your vision on statecraft and help us vote

Judging by the latest political news stories, we are deep into election season, which culminates with the presidential vote slated for March 9, 2022. Unfortunately, the candidates seem to be in a race to insult and attack each other, often putting their feet in their mouths in the process. Neither is this entertaining nor appreciated. This type of campaigning simply irks voters and makes them grow weary. Voters do not want to see the Trumpification of Korean politics. They want to hear the vision each candidate has to govern the country and ensure that Korea continues to be a vibrant and thr...

2021-10-31 17:05

How Quad can become inclusive regional initiative

By Song Kyung-jin History recalls that there were at least two Sept. 15ths in the early part of the 21st century on which extraordinary events happened: 2008 and 2021. On Sept. 15, 2008, the world economy witnessed the biggest-ever bankruptcy of an investment bank, Lehman Brothers. The need for China's cooperation to combat the Great Recession at that time eclipsed the needs of the Quad. Exactly 13 years later, the launch of a security initiative around the Indo-Pacific, called the AUKUS (standing for “Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States”) partnership, was announc...

2021-09-29 17:05

Respect for innovation is key to faster global vaccine supply

As countries around the world are still struggling to vaccinate their populations, their efforts are undermined by the insufficient and inequitable production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines. According to “Our World in Data,” 32.4 percent of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 24.4 percent has been fully vaccinated as of Aug. 22.

2021-08-24 15:41

Presidential hopefuls should ensure fair educational opportunities

The political season is heating up to be as hot as the weather this summer. Few conversations nowadays end without a mention of the presidential candidates and political developments. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on March 9, 2022, so it is perhaps too early for the candidates to draw public attention to the key points of their campaign agenda. Great attention to a candidates' campaign agenda has in fact never been a salient feature of South Korean politics, compared to candidates' characteristics and personal histories full of hardships. However, the buzzword run...

2021-07-27 17:01

World needs global Korea

Foreign policy becomes domestic policy only when it is presented with the right background, direction and information. Before and after the G7 Leaders' Summit on June 11-13 in Cornwall, the U.K., the whole of Korea was mired in excitement and ire simultaneously out of confusion and misleading information from the government and supposed experts.

2021-06-29 17:05

Korea's role in infrastructure investment for stronger Indo-Pacific

The Republic of Korea-the United States summit was held on May 21, a day before the 139th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations. Aimed at strengthening the long-time alliance and bilateral cooperation for the future on all fronts, the bilateral summit also paved the way for a stronger free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific rapidly becoming the center of global geopolitics, geoeconomics and geostrategy.

2021-06-01 17:05

No global economic recovery in sight without vaccine leadership

Just over a month ago, the mood for the global economy was more positive and optimistic with increasing vaccinations and the fiscal stimulus packages in the United States and around the world. The International Monetary Fund projected global growth of 6 percent in 2021 and 4.4 percent in 2022 after a contraction of 3.3 percent in 2020. Its growth projections for Asia were even higher with 7.6 percent in 2021 and 5.4 percent in 2022 after a contraction of 1.5 percent in 2020.

2021-05-04 17:16

Why Korea needs flexible and prosperous Indo-Pacific vision

I take the liberty of guessing that perhaps it is the by-elections taking place in the two largest cities in Korea that forced the government to make two rushed announcements in the space of a week. One was about the immediate possibility of a Korea-U.S. summit within the month of April, and the other was the possibility of a Korea-China bilateral summit soon after the COVID-19 pandemic comes under control. Neither was confirmed by the counterparts. It has in effect undermined the credibility of the Korean government. But at the bottom of it all lies the alleged fact that Korea feels lost wi...

2021-04-06 17:19

WTO leadership race

Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, there was another event in 2020 that Korea should not miss taking stock of, registering the results in our collective memory in order to strive for more refined diplomacy. It was Korea's decision to enter into the race for the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO). There are four criteria that provide useful guidelines for this reflection: the regional rotation rule, broadly applied; competition between candidates; internal and external coordination and communication; and strategic objectives.

2021-03-09 16:51

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