May 2026.1 I. Context: The End of the Inter-Cold War Period The roughly three-decade interval following the collapse of the Soviet Union, during which China and Russia turned inward toward domestic consolidation and the United States broadly upheld the post-1945… Read More ›
Month: May 2026
Colonialism and the Roots of the Modern Economy
Nobody walks away from the slave trade with their dignity intact. If colonialism is the second-worst thing humans have ever done to one another, the Atlantic trade has a strong claim on first place — and the two are less… Read More ›
East Asia in English: From FEER to Today
Part 1: Origins and the Davies era (1946–1989) The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) was founded in Hong Kong in 1946 with seed capital from the Kadoorie family, Jardines, and HSBC by Eric Halpern, a Viennese Jewish émigré who had… Read More ›
Korea in English: It Ain’t All There
The Korea that exists in English is not the same as the Korea that exists in Korean. There is a gap. Below, I try to outline that gap. The two English flagships and how people see them The Korea Times… Read More ›
What’s Wrong With Busan?
The below draws on Korean-language reporting and academic sources. I’ve kept it focused on political dynamics inside Busan City Hall (부산광역시청) and its relationship with South Gyeongsang Province (경상남도), with the structural macro factors (i.e., Seoul’s popularity) only as context…. Read More ›