NEED TO KNOW SPAIN Spanish Netherlands It was ironic that Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and other officials of the would-be independent republic […]

NEED TO KNOW SAUDI ARABIA A Game of Thrones Saudi police apprehended more than 30 princes, tycoons, clerics and other elites in […]

NEED TO KNOW NIGER Diplomats and Bombs The deaths of four Green Berets and five local soldiers in Niger last month have […]

NEED TO KNOW HONDURAS A Suicide Mission When activists in Honduras speak up, it’s more than an act of bravery. That’s because […]

NEED TO KNOW TANZANIA A Wolf and a Sheep East African leaders have been making headlines as of late – but not […]

NEED TO KNOW LAOS Jumping the Gun One of the world’s few remaining communist states, Laos is also one of Asia’s poorest. […]

NEED TO KNOW GEORGIA No Pipe Dream A year ago, the Southern Caucasus country of Georgia held what was likely its freest […]

NEED TO KNOW PROTESTANT REFORMATION In Praise of Reform Five hundred years ago on Oct. 31, when the rebellious theologian and monk […]

NEED TO KNOW CHINA The Chairman of Everything In addition to serving as president of China, Xi Jinping holds at least 12 […]

NEED TO KNOW KENYA A No-win Do-over Kenya is going ahead with its presidential election Thursday. That’s the case even though an […]

NEED TO KNOW PHILIPPINES Of Roosters and Corners Once believed to be impervious to the pitfalls of his bombastic rhetoric and controversial […]

NEED TO KNOW UGANDA Just a Little Bit Longer Pay attention to what is happening in Uganda as President Yoweri Museveni tries […]

NEED TO KNOW LATIN AMERICA Tidewaters Socialists rose to power in Latin America in the 1990s and 2000s as the region’s economy […]

NEED TO KNOW CZECH REPUBLIC Bohemian Rhapsody The candidate expected to become the next leader of the Czech Republic is a “polarizing,” […]

NEED TO KNOW ARGENTINA One Country, Two Leaders, Two Mysteries When Irish rocker Bono met Argentine President Mauricio Macri recently, the two […]

NEED TO KNOW JAPAN Meteoric Fizzle When Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike brought her Party of Hope to the national stage in opposition […]

NEED TO KNOW SPAIN Pushing Deadlines Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont failed to meet a deadline – again. Catalonia proceeded with an illegal […]

NEED TO KNOW TURKEY Losing Friends If Russia or Iran invaded Turkey, the United States would presumably rush to the defense of […]

NEED TO KNOW KYRGYZSTAN The Outlier The political climate in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan is little known to even the […]

NEED TO KNOW AUSTRIA They’re Back Austria’s presidential election last year was a knock-down, drag-out fight between former Green Party leader Alexander […]

NEED TO KNOW BANGLADESH The Risky Burden More than half a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have flooded into neighboring Bangladesh since […]

NEED TO KNOW Liberia Personality Politics Liberians take to the polls Tuesday in a historic election that marks the first time in […]

NEED TO KNOW SAUDI ARABIA Dynamic or Desperate? The recent attack by a lone gunman on Saudi Arabian King Salman’s summer palace […]

NEED TO KNOW SWEDEN New Song and Dance Last month, Sweden conducted its largest set of war games in two decades, mobilizing […]