qui tacet consentire videtur

And loom over me like a Damoclean blade. All my sloth has come back to haunt me. I wonder if I will ever learn.

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Selling the American dream? (Shibuya, Tokyo)

James Zumwalt, Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs at the State Department came to Columbia to give us an update on US-Japan relations, hosted by Robert Immerman-sensei at the Weatherhead Institute. He was speaking on the record, so it wasn’t really all that exciting, but there were a few gems I took away.

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Joel Wit, a fellow at the Center for Korean Research at Weatherhead, gave a presentation on his February “Journey to Yongbyon” (North Korean nuclear plant) with an international assessment team. It was hosted by Charles Armstrong at CKR, and Samuel Kim was there too - for a guy who’s retired he sure hangs around his old office a lot. Some interesting takeaways:

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