| | | | Fareed: There is an Alternative to the Zombie North Korea Policy
| | The United States and North Korea find themselves in a more dangerous zone than at any point in decades. But there is a way off this perilous path, Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column.
"The United States has adopted a zombie policy, one that has no chance of success but staggers along nonetheless. It means that we cannot make any progress on what is in fact an achievable and desirable goal -- to freeze the North Korean arsenal, end further tests, and place the weapons under inspection," Fareed writes.
"A way out of this paralysis would be to reframe the issue and broaden its scope. Joshua Cooper Ramo, co-chief executive of Henry Kissinger's consulting firm, has devised and shared with me a plan -- one that has been circulating among officials in Washington -- to convene an international conference on nuclear proliferation. All existing nuclear weapons states would agree not to test or expand their arsenals for some period of time -- say, 36 months. Inspectors would verify that these limits are adhered to. All other nations would affirm that they do not intend to acquire nuclear weapons. Crucially, North Korea would be invited to sign onto this agreement as a nuclear weapons state, with the idea of freezing progress for now and aiming to later denuclearize the country."
"There is no good -- let alone perfect -- policy for the North Korean problem. But the Trump administration needs to stop the insults, get serious and try to find some way to stabilize the situation."
| | What Team Trump Wants In China | | Rex Tillerson is in China for his second visit there as Secretary of State. Andrew Small, senior transatlantic fellow with the German Marshall Fund's Asia Program, emails Global Briefing that the North Korean nuclear program, economic disputes, and the inaugural visit from President Trump in November are likely to dominate discussions.
"The Trump administration has narrowed the focus of its exchanges with Beijing to a handful of priorities, and nowadays even issues as crucial as the territorial dispute in the South China Sea no longer feature as prominently in talks. North Korea tops the priority list, and here we should expect Tillerson's main concern to be sanctions enforcement. China provides Pyongyang's economic lifeline and the U.S. government sees increased pressure from Beijing as the only viable way of forcing North Korea to change its approach," Small says.
"This weekend's meetings will also deal with the style and substance of the presidential visit. The staging of these occasions is rife with symbolism and many of the smallest details need to be negotiated at the highest levels. In the process, the Chinese side will seek greater clarity on how the new administration sees the broader direction of U.S.-China ties. But they are unlikely to get it. The U.S. government is engaged in a wide-ranging review of its China strategy and until it concludes, U.S. cabinet secretaries coming to Beijing are armed with negotiating goals but not -- yet -- an overall vision for the relationship."
| | Germany's Other Big Election Story Should Worry Europe | | | The rise of the right-wing opposition grabbed the headlines from Germany's election Sunday. But the results underscored another division in the country, one that should trouble the rest of Europe, too: Elderly vs. younger voters, suggests Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry for Bloomberg View. "While the West is graying overall, Germany is getting older faster, with the highest median age in Europe, and one of the lowest birth rates. And Germany's future will inevitably shape the future of Europe," Gobry writes. "The age rift played out as an establishment versus anti-establishment divide. The establishment parties (Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU; the Social Democratic Party; and the Free Democratic Party) drew their support from older voters, with CDU/CSU getting 41 percent of the over-60 vote, versus 32.9 percent nationally. Meanwhile, younger people disproportionately support either less establishmentarian parties or don't vote, showing alienation from the political establishment that has steered Germany since the end of World War II." | | (Quite) Good News on Emissions | | For the third year running, CO2 emissions were virtually flat, "a welcome sign that the world is making at least some progress in the battle against global warming by halting the long-term rising trend," Damian Carrington writes for The Guardian.
"All of the world's biggest emitting nations, except India, saw falling or static carbon emissions due to less coal burning and increasing renewable energy, according to data published on Thursday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA). However other mainly developing nations, including Indonesia, still have rising rates of CO2 emissions," Carrington writes.
"Stalled global emissions still means huge amounts of CO2 are being added to the atmosphere every year – more than 35 billion tons in 2016 – driving up global temperatures and increasing the risk of damaging, extreme weather. Furthermore, other heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly methane from cattle and leaks from oil and gas exploration, are still rising and went up by 1% in 2016."
| | The Most Economically Free Place in the World Is… | | | Hong Kong is the most economically free place in the world, closely followed by Singapore, according to the Fraser Institute's latest Economic Freedom of the World report. New Zealand, Switzerland and Ireland round out the top five, while the United States ranks 11th, "well below its second place ranking in 2000."
The annual report, which this year looks at data for 2015, measures economic freedom based on five broad areas: Size of government; legal system and property rights; sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation. The United States ranked fifth in terms of overall regulation, but only 63rd on freedom to trade internationally, and 80th in terms of size of government. Still, the Fraser Institute's Fred McMahon suggests Hong Kong's days at the top could be numbered: "While Hong Kong is again the most economically free, there is a valid concern that interference from mainland China -- which ranks 112th in economic freedom -- will ultimately lead to deterioration in Hong Kong's top position, particularly in rule of law, which helps ensure equal freedom for all." | | Turkey's Troubling Education Shake-Up | | | For a decade, the government of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan made dramatic strides in improving the country's education. But a new school curriculum "has left Turkish liberals and secularists aghast," The Economist says. "From this year onwards, children as young as six will be taught the story of last summer's abortive coup -- presumably without including the mass purges and arrests that followed it. Imam hatip students, meanwhile, will study the concept of jihad. (The education ministry says the term, which can also refer to one's personal struggle against sin, has been misused.) A module on the life of the Prophet Muhammad will teach the same pupils that Muslims should avoid marrying atheists, and that wives should obey their husbands. Schools are also becoming a target of Mr Erdogan's mosque-building spree," The Economist writes. "Student performance, as measured every three years by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), having improved until 2012, dipped in 2015. Turkish students scored second to last among all OECD countries that year. The previous curriculum placed a bigger emphasis on critical thinking. The new one has reverted to an emphasis on rote learning." | | | | | | |
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