Looking Back on the World in 2010: The Year We Experienced a Harsh Security Environment

A great many people once again experienced the harshness of the security guarantee environment that surrounds Japan.

Readers of this paper choose their top 10 foreign news headlines for 2010. The list included many stories reporting on North Korea’s reckless violence and the alien qualities of the rising China.

The incidents of the bombardment of Korea and Yeonpyeong (2nd place) and the sinking of South Korean patrol ships (8th place) showed North Korea’s true belligerent nature. Regarding the process of Kim Jong-un’s inheritance of political power (6th place), both the continuation of nuclear development and military provocation have raised tensions on the Korean peninsula.

China saw success at both the Guangzhou Asian Games and Expo 2010 Shanghai, where a record 730 million people attended (3rd place) and strengthened its influence on the international stage in the background of rapid economic growth.

However, the world noticed China’s conduct disconnected from common-sense diplomacy and lack of any concept of human rights. The Nobel Peace Prize was granted to their own country’s imprisoned democratic activist Liu Xiaobo (7th place), but China prohibited his family from attending the award ceremony and even put pressure on other countries to not attend.

The United States bears the important duty of East Asian stability, and the Obama administration that championed conversation and multinational cooperation is approaching the two-year mark. Moreover, the ruling Democratic Party was beaten in the midterm elections (13th place) and had the majority in the House seized by the Republican Party.

This has caused a shadow to fall on the United States’ clout in the international community.

Regarding Russia, President Medvedev is visiting the Kuril Islands and has adopted a strong stance toward Japan. Though the Americas and Europe have shown a cooperative stance on nuclear disarmament and missile defense, Russia has become the country that shows the difference between East and West.

Anxiety has spread in areas outside of East Asia as well. A large amount of U.S. State Department cables were made public by the whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks (11th place), displaying the frightening side of information leaking in the Internet age.

Beginning with Greece’s financial crisis (12th place), anxiety over the reliability of the euro shocked the world economy. In Europe, society is losing basic social tolerance as the influence of the far right that rejects coexistence with Muslims makes great leaps forward.

Natural and man-made disasters follow in succession, such as the earthquake in Haiti (4th place) and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (5th place).

The first 10 years of the 21st century have come to a close carrying this insecurity into the future. I hope that next year will be a year remembered for news that moves the world in a better direction.