NEED TO KNOW Terror Bogey Russian President Vladimir Putin’s negotiating style bears some similarity to the old American cliché “Shoot first and […]

NEED TO KNOW Desert Quicksand Since the ouster and later killing of former dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011, Libya has been reeling […]

NEED TO KNOW Thai-style Democracy Thailand looks to be destined for more political violence. After some two years of authoritarian-style order, a […]

NEED TO KNOW Bashir’s Bargain Once upon a time, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was an international pariah – accused of genocide and […]

NEED TO KNOW Poking the Dragon U.S. President Barack Obama’s efforts to prevent conflict in the Far East seem to be ramping […]

NEED TO KNOW Going Missing Malaysia has become notorious for losing things. First, it was Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777 […]

NEED TO KNOW Going Missing Malaysia has become notorious for losing things. First, it was Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777 […]

NEED TO KNOW Russian Roulette Negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin must feel a bit like Russian roulette. You know there’s a […]

NEED TO KNOW Winter is Coming To paraphrase Game of Thrones, winter may be coming for the country that sparked the Arab […]

NEED TO KNOW Two Steps Back India’s most popular prime minister in decades just pushed through the country’s biggest economic reform since […]

NEED TO KNOW Desperate Times Desperate times call for desperate measures, the saying goes. In Venezuela, those measures provide as good a […]

NEED TO KNOW Losing Faith For the past 22 years, South Africa has been running on faith. Steeped in the lore of […]

NEED TO KNOW A Spectacle of Catastrophe? Rattled by impeachment and corruption scandals, a vicious recession and a public health emergency thanks […]

NEED TO KNOW Being Different When Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others began flooding into Europe last year, some warned that terrorists might […]

NEED TO KNOW Pushing Poland For once, the pope is more liberal than the people. Pope Francis confronted conservative Poland head-on this […]

NEED TO KNOW Russian Dolls Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sent geopolitical ripples hither and thither on Wednesday when he called on […]

NEED TO KNOW Taking Stock Two years after the short yet brutal war between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, there are […]

NEED TO KNOW The Summer of Discontent After years of disastrous economic policies, Zimbabweans’ patience with 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe appears to […]

NEED TO KNOW Web of Wolves What makes a terrorist? Events over the weekend in Germany — as well as new revelations […]

Need to Know Elton John Won’t Beat AIDS Sixteen years after the decision that turned the tide against HIV/AIDS, the once-dreaded disease […]

Need to know The More Things Change Turkish officials have launched a purge on a scale that evokes a communist dictatorship cracking […]

Need to know No Peace To Keep The African Union has approved a peacekeeping force for South Sudan. But, in a twist […]

Need to Know The Same Old Same Old Tens of thousands of people congregated on the Promenade des Anglais Monday to observe […]

Need to Know Shock but Little Awe The failed coup d’etat in Turkey was shocking. But, as the dust from the brief […]