Charles Recknagel is standards editor for RFE/RL.
There is no magic formula for knowing how countries become wealthy and their citizens happy.
What makes countries happy and prosperous? It's more than just a high GDP. According to recent studies, the factors that contribute to making countries rich, and their people satisfied, also include citizens' ability to participate fully in public and business life.
Talk of the planned U.S. troop withdrawal has Afghan citizens mulling their future.
The European E. coli outbreak has killed 22 people so far and left hundreds hospitalized -- mostly in Germany. It is proving an enormous challenge for German investigators to track down. Why is this outbreak so hard to pinpoint and why is it so damaging to health?
Sixty years ago, Radio Free Europe went on the air with its first broadcast service. The target country was Czechoslovakia, and this year many of those who listened to the broadcasts are marking the anniversary.
The Armenian government is freeing its jailed critics and opening the door to dialogue with the opposition. Why?
In much of the world, it is indigenous political parties and the local civil society they represent that helps to keep extremists at bay. But in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas there is no such counterbalance.
Afghanistan once attracted thousands of tourists. At the Blue Mosque in Mazar-e Sharif, it is easy to see why.
Development projects are key to rescuing Pakistan's tribal areas from militancy. So why do people there have so little faith in them?
On May 6, U.S. President Barack Obama met some of the members of Team Six -- the special unit widely reported to have undertaken the operation to kill Osama bin Laden earlier this week. What is Team Six and who are the SEALs?
When Reactor No. 4 at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant exploded 25 years ago, it seemed nuclear power might die with it. But in subsequent years, rising fossil fuel prices and concerns over global warming prompted talk of a "nuclear renaissance." Now, as Japan's Fukushima Daiichi reactors produce the worst radiation leaks since Chornobyl, doubts about nuclear power are suddenly back with a vengeance.
A Pashtun tribe in Pakistan has risen against a Taliban-allied militia it once felt forced to accommodate.
Under the Taliban, morality police patrolled Afghan weddings. Now a draft law threatens to bring the morality patrols back.
Japan says if you live 30 kilometers from its damaged nuclear reactor, you are safe. So, why are people worldwide so worried?
Why is it so difficult to make and keep peace in Pakistan's tribal areas? The case of Kurram Agency, where a key peace accord suddenly looks shaky, is instructive.
Rescue teams trying to secure Japan's earthquake-damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are finding the task is getting harder, not easier, with time.
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi doesn't have many friends in the world. But he can count on Serbia's ultranationalists.
Everyone wants to put a label on the Libya operation. Some call it humanitarian intervention. Some call it imperialism.
The rebel leadership in Libya desperately wants other countries to recognize it as a government but only France has done so. Why?
Opposition organizers called for a day of protests in Saudi Arabia on March 11. The biggest protests were likely to be in oil-rich east of the country where a largely Shi'ite population has long felt discriminated against.
Load more
