New York Times Editorial Board Member Carol Giacomo

He Takes Me in His Arms and Starts to Dance in the Streets in Pyongyang

Carol Giacomo is a foreign and defense policy writer and a member of the editorial board of The New York Times. Previously, she covered foreign policy and traveled over 1 million miles to more than 100 countries with eight secretaries of state as diplomatic correspondent for Reuters in Washington, D.C. Before taking part in a Zócalo/UCLA Downtown event, “Is America Enabling Autocrats to Run the World?,” at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles, she spoke in the Zócalo green room about back channels, having …

Why Declaring Peace With North Korea Could Make the World a More Dangerous Place

The Trump-Kim Summit Could Result in More Nuclear Weapons and Frayed U.S. Alliances in Northeast Asia

The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and hopes have been raised that this week’s second U.S.-North Korea summit may begin a process towards …

The Sanitized Rhetoric That Makes Nuclear War More Likely

To Rid the Planet of Atomic Weapons, We Should Dismantle the Language That Makes Them Possible

The nuclear age began 73 years ago when a brilliant, terrible flash lit up the pre-dawn sky in the New Mexico desert. That first explosion at the Trinity site in …

Why the Planet Should Fear North Korean Nuclear Testing

Our Cold War History Shows the Deadly Fallout From Detonating Weapons in the Atmosphere

Fishermen in Japan peer wearily into the skies, fearful of the North Korean foreign minister’s recent warning that Pyongyang may conduct an atmospheric nuclear test over the Pacific. Earlier this …

What Californians Can Learn From South Korea’s Nuclear Cool

As the Golden State Frets Over North Korea's Missiles, Seoul Residents Say 'Keep Calm, Study up—and Drink'

Can Californians learn to be as cool as Koreans in the face of nuclear annihilation?

Visiting Seoul last week, I asked people how they stay sane while living within range of …

Before Going to War in North Korea, Try Understanding the Place First

Armed Conflict Between the U.S. and Pyongyang Isn’t Inevitable—or Impossible

With schoolyard taunts hurtling between Washington and Pyongyang, and fears of nuclear Armageddon escalating from Seoul to Tokyo to Los Angeles, the once-unthinkable idea of a military showdown between North …