|
Since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, tensions have ramped up on the Korean peninsula, largely due to a series of provocative actions by North Korea. Now, a US armada is approaching the peninsula as Pyongyang celebrates the anniversary of its military’s founding.
Given its proximity to its fraternal northern neighbour, the country with the most at stake in avoiding a confrontation between the two is South Korea. But surrounded as it is on all other sides by greater powers, argues Bernard Loo Fook Weng, finding the right equilibrium will be a delicate process.
|
The demilitarised zone between North and South Korea is one of the last bastions of the Cold War.
Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Bernard Loo Fook Weng, Nanyang Technological University
South Korea must seek to strike a balance in its respective strategic and economic relationships.
|
Business + Economy
|
-
Andrés Mideros Mora, United Nations University
A new study shows that conditional cash transfers have helped Ecuador's poorest households climb out of poverty. When that money was paired with capital to invest, people fared even better.
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Simon P. Watmough, European University Institute; Balveer Arora, Jawaharlal Nehru University ; Donatella Della Porta, Institute of Human and Social sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence ; Luis Gómez Romero, University of Wollongong
France must now choose between two candidates with strongly opposing visions. The outcome of the May 7 run-off could radically alter France, as well as its position in Europe and in the world.
|
|
Environment + Energy
|
-
Euan Ritchie, Deakin University
Searching for animals thought to be extinct – or fictional – is difficult, painstaking and often disappointing. But new technology like drones offer hope of a boom in biological discovery.
|
|
Health + Medicine
|
-
Willis Simon Akhwale, University of Washington
Eliminating malaria in Africa has been held back by a range of factors, including a lack of funds and drug and insecticide resistance challenges.
|
|
