[Matteo Maggiori] China and US geoeconomic competition: The relevance for Korea

The year 2026 has just started, and we are already witnessing great powers such as the United States and China exerting their influence on the rest of the world. The remainder of the year is likely to bring more of the same. Countries around the world, including Korea, are watching with apprehension the return of overt geoeconomic and military actions by these superpowers. To understand this great power competition, it is helpful to think of three critical areas. First, the global financial syst

Jan. 14, 2026

[Kim Seong-kon] Calling for peace between polar opposites

It is well known that our world is composed of opposites: fire and water, land and sea, east and west, black and white, animals and plants, man and women, to name just a few. Our bodies, too, are made of opposites, such as the left side and right side. The important thing is that the two opposites are equally important and valuable because they are reciprocal and function interdependently. They need each other to accomplish something meaningful. It is difficult to walk if we have only one leg or

Jan. 14, 2026

[Dante Disparte] Stablecoins: Build, buy, or partner?

Every company in the world needs a stablecoin strategy. But not every company in the world needs to launch a stablecoin. At their core, stablecoins are open digital money, and the openness is the most important feature — one that enables organizations to conceive of and offer always-on internet-scale payments and economic activity. However, because of a wave of regulatory clarity in the US and around the world, triggered by landmark new laws for stablecoins such as the US GENIUS Act, and Europe’

Jan. 13, 2026

[Lim Woong] On growing up as a boy

I recently finished watching the Netflix series "Adolescence." It was not an easy watch — a visceral piece of television that leaves you not with the satisfaction of a mystery solved, but with the hollow ache of a tragedy that raises more questions than it answers. The plot opens with a dawn raid on the home of a plumber, his wife and their two kids. The son, Jamie, is arrested for the murder of a female classmate, but he looks like a naive teen: He wets himself in terror as the police burst in.

Jan. 13, 2026

[Gary Gensler] Will the Fed be allowed to do its job?

As candidates vie to become the next chair of the US Federal Reserve, they should heed the hockey legend Wayne Gretzky’s advice to “skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” With many economic pucks in play — from sticky inflation, mounting deficits, and an AI investment boom to potential financial fragility and concerns about the dollar’s global primacy — a big question for the global economy is whether the Fed will be allowed to do what it needs to do. Will it maintain enough a

Jan. 13, 2026

[Jackie Calmes] What's Trump's real agenda?

In 2025, President Donald Trump ordered 626 missile strikes worldwide, 71 more than President Biden did in his entire four-year term. Targets, so far, have included Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Iran and the waters off Venezuela and Colombia. Lately he's threatened to hit Iran again if it kills demonstrators who have been marching in Tehran's streets to protest the country's woeful economic conditions. ("We are locked and loaded and ready to go," Trump posted Friday.) The president doesn

Jan. 12, 2026

[Lee Kyong-hee] Americans who fell in love with minhwa

In 1973, Kay E. Black, a housewife living in Denver, joined a group of local art enthusiasts on a tour of museums in Seoul. One of the stops was the Emille Museum, founded by Zo Za-yong, a pioneer of Korea’s 20th-century folk art movement, who brought to light the currently sensational image of a tiger and magpie. Black could not have known that this single visit would change the course of her life. She was immediately captivated by Zo’s introduction to brightly colored Joseon-era (1392-1910) fo

Jan. 12, 2026

[Robert J. Fouser] Does Trump equal permanent change?

Barely days into 2026, the US Delta Force seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas and took him to New York to face criminal charges related to narcotics trafficking. US President Donald Trump justified the mission in terms of law enforcement and stated, vaguely, that the US would “run” Venezuela with a focus on rebuilding the oil industry. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. The events in Caracas shocked the world and stirred worries of a new era of 19th-cen

Jan. 9, 2026

[Sung Soo Eric Kim] US-China War Behind Venezuela operation

The US military operation carried out overnight on Jan. 3 in Venezuela unfolded with striking speed. Within roughly three hours, it was effectively over. President Nicolas Maduro was secured, and the mission concluded without US casualties. More than 150 aircraft moved in coordinated waves. Intelligence from the ground, air and space anticipated Venezuelan military responses before they fully formed. Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later described the mission as a well-oi

Jan. 8, 2026

[Man-Ki Kim] Korea’s EU market growth strategy

South Korea’s export strategy has long been shaped by two gravitational centers: the United States and China. Together, they still account for more than one-third of Korea’s total exports. This structure delivered remarkable growth over the past decades and underpinned Korea’s rise as a global manufacturing powerhouse. Yet as global trade becomes increasingly fragmented, politicized and regulation-driven, this concentration has shifted from a source of strength to a source of strategic vulnerabi

Jan. 8, 2026

[Wang Son-taek] Maduro case: the erosion of rule-based order

The United States’ decision to indict Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on narcoterrorism charges and to subject him to forcible trial procedures is not merely a question of criminal justice or bilateral diplomacy. It raises a far more consequential issue: how a hegemonic power treats international law, and what happens to global stability when that law is selectively ignored. At stake is not the character of one leader or the legitimacy of one regime, but the integrity of the international le

Jan. 8, 2026

[Kim Seong-kon] The true success of 'KPop Demon Hunters'

Recently, Koreans were greatly elated by two memorable events. One was that “KPop Demon Hunters” appeared on an alternate cover of Time magazine on Dec. 29, 2025, and was named as the breakthrough of the year. Just after that, Huntrix songs from "KPop Demon Hunters," sung by Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, were performed at Times Square in New York and Las Vegas to bid adieu to 2025 on New Year’s Eve. We know that it was not easy to be featured on a Time magazine cover or be invited to the New Ye

Jan. 7, 2026

[Vera Songwe, Bernice Lee] How the world can reboot 'America First'

“There’s no question about it,” US President Donald Trump said at last month’s FIFA World Cup Final Draw ceremony: The game that Americans call soccer “is football,” and the United States has to “come up with another name” for its National Football League. The cognitive dissonance was palpable. The high priest of “America First” had conceded that at least one example of American exceptionalism, however trivial, “really doesn’t make sense,” and suggested that the name of America’s most recognized

Jan. 7, 2026

[Grace Kao] What BTS pets say about bandmates

For those of us who share our homes with our pets, we know the great joy they bring to our lives. Dogs, and even some cats, greet us when we come home. They play and sit with us. They keep us company when we’re lonely and they watch over us when we’re sick. During the pandemic, they even occasionally appeared in Zoom calls. What does it mean when celebrities, especially the members of BTS, own pets? During a live video on Dec. 28, 2025, BTS' Suga introduced his new cat, Tang or Tang-ie (from the

Jan. 6, 2026

[Ana Palacio] The post-2025 world order

US President Donald Trump’s designation by various publications as one of the most influential people of 2025 is not surprising. But it is nonetheless striking: Rather than being honored for his leadership — for, say, resolving crises or consolidating institutions — Trump is being recognized for shattering norms, upending alliances, spearheading economic fragmentation, and ushering in a transactional form of international politics. In past decades, the United States could harden its policies wit

Jan. 6, 2026