NEED TO KNOW No Joy Here Election Day is weird for expatriate Americans. Observing from abroad, and often spending lots of time […]

NEED TO KNOW The World is Watching The world is watching the American presidential election more closely – and with more horror, […]

NEED TO KNOW Falling Dominoes In the early days of the Cold War, US President Dwight Eisenhower suggested that the loss of […]

NEED TO KNOW The Invisible Hand Cameroonians donned black and sang religious hymns last month to mourn those who perished in a […]

NEED TO KNOW Of Poeticians and Refresh Buttons Will we look back on Iceland as the beginning of the end for populism? […]

NEED TO KNOW Hearts and Minds Moldova is shaping up to become the new Ukraine. The tiny country cleaved from Romania by […]

NEED TO KNOW Of Presidents, Protests and Rasputin South Korea seems to be succumbing to the same crisis of confidence that is […]

NEED TO KNOW Snake Charmers Some years ago, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a rare, candid rebuke to Pakistan, a […]

NEED TO KNOW Tipping Scales African nations were among the most ardent supporters of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague […]

NEED TO KNOW Carrot, Meet Stick A few months ago, shortly after he became Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman said he would […]

NEED TO KNOW O Wallonia! A region of Belgium with a population of 3.6 million actually can scuttle a trade deal involving […]

NEED TO KNOW ‘The Return of Correct Thinking’ It’s a heady time for China’s thought leaders. As WikiLeaks – via Russian hackers, […]

NEED TO KNOW Filipino Frenemy First a colony of the United States and then one of America’s most reliable allies in Asia, […]

NEED TO KNOW Rinse and Repeat Turkish leaders on Wednesday extended a state of emergency declared after an attempted coup that rocked […]

NEED TO KNOW A Shaky, Remote Front A sparsely populated country covering a vast stretch of the Sahara Desert, Mauritania doesn’t receive […]

NEED TO KNOW Mosul, and Iraq, in the Balance It has begun. More than two years after Islamic State militants sent the […]

NEED TO KNOW Of Heartbreak and Poodles The go-go bars and sex trade in the Soi Cowboy red-light district of Bangkok were […]

NEED TO KNOW Known Unknowns To explain the ongoing confusion over the United Kingdom’s plans to exit the European Union – a.k.a. […]

NEED TO KNOW The Running of Maduro To say that 2016 has been a rocky year for Venezuela would be an understatement. […]

NEED TO KNOW Cops for Hire Mexico is taking lawlessness to whole new levels. Gangs and drug money suffuse the Mexican police, […]

NEED TO KNOW Disappointment in Plain Sight Morocco’s King Mohammed VI asked Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane to form a new government on […]

NEED TO KNOW A Shot in the Arm When US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Prize in 2009 – nine months […]

NEED TO KNOW The New Solidarity Poland’s fight for freedom may have started with a labor movement. But like many other countries […]

NEED TO KNOW Not Over It Yet Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, recently delivered a pleasant message to the people of […]