This Week’s Foreign Policy Must-Reads

Many people are prepared to criticize Western countries for not readily offering safe haven to Middle Eastern refugees… [Still,] it remains puzzling why five [Gulf Arab] countries with a combined national income of $2 trillion have not offered credible assistance to solve the current refugee crisis. After all, they have all more or less been involved—directly or indirectly—in the Syrian civil war by virtue of having either encouraged or armed various groups.

Climate change is a problem that politics is almost designed not to solve. Its costs lie mostly in the distant future, whereas politics is built to respond to immediate conditions… [But] the technological and political underpinnings are at last in place to actually consummate the first global pact to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. The world is suddenly responding to the climate emergency with — by the standards of its previous behavior — astonishing speed. The game is not over. And the good guys are starting to win.

These are the haenyeo (sea women) of South Korea’s Jeju island, who have dived in search of seaweed and shellfish since at least the 17th century. Their work is one of the country’s most celebrated traditions but one that many islanders fear could soon be consigned to the past…These women have their own jobs, they earn their own money, they’re the ones who resolve problems in the family. Most Koreans are still quite old-fashioned but these old ladies are the ones living in the 21st century.

The rise of the smugglers to central figures in the refugee drama is a direct result of the EU’s failure to adequately address the crisis. Europe still has no plan or strategy for dealing with the rising numbers of refugees. Instead, they blame each other for the humanitarian disaster that has slowly moved from Europe’s periphery to its heart. The political chaos provides fertile soil for the smugglers because they, in contrast to Europe’s leaders, have a plan.

On Aug. 14, members of the ultraconservative Orthodox Christian organization, God’s Will, stormed into an exhibition that had just opened at Moscow’s storied exhibition hall…The intruders smashed several pieces, shouting that the exhibits were offensive to Christians and that mocking religion was punishable under a criminal code… The crude and heavy hand of the Soviet police state has been replaced by far-right groups, such as God’s Will, that resort to intimidation and violence. In a way, the state has subcontracted its role as the guardian of morality to ultraconservative groups and organizations.