DEADLY DAY FOR ITALY

William Bradley, 05/19/12

Political Analyst, NewWestNotes.com

There's a lot of confusion about the ballyhooed NATO Summit in Chicago, intended as a big boost to Obama's geopolitical leadership, showcased in his hometown. Here are some big outstanding questions about NATO's future.

Karen Edwards, 05/18/12

Karen is a Freelance Entertainment and Travel Journalist based in London.

Snorkelling and swimming around the Great Barrier Reef is an experience I'll never, ever forget. Yes, it took me the best part of three days to get there and hell, yeah, it didn't come cheap - but my goodness, it was worth it...

Esther Wojcicki, 05/19/12

Journalism/English teacher

In just two short years, Krista Donaldson and her team at D-Rev have changed the lives of over 3,500 people in India. Donaldson is one of 21 outstanding speakers at TEDxStanford that you can watch live on LiveStreaming today.

Wasim Salfiti, 05/18/12

Writer

Beneath the barrage of political symbols and slogans lies a human experience of heartache and loss, to which Americans of all backgrounds might possibly relate.

Hibaaq Osman, 05/18/12

Founder, Karama

The history of women's rights across the globe demonstrates time and again the propensity of conservatives to adopt "women-centric" agendas that do everything to scapegoat women's freedoms in order to bolster their own platforms.

Samuel A. Worthington, 05/19/12

President, InterAction

As an amateur climber for 20 years, I learned that to scale daunting cliffs and ice, two core attributes are required -- courage and teamwork. You probably feel like you have been climbing your own mountain after two days of G8 talks at Camp David

Aitan Goelman, 05/18/12

Partner, Zuckerman Spaeder LLP

Contrary to Peter Beinart's thesis in The Crisis of Zionism, American Jews need not -- and most have not -- checked their liberalism at the door in order to maintain unwavering support for the Jewish State.

Eric Margolis, 05/18/12

Veteran journalist, author

What would happen to Greece if it quit the euro? Financial chaos, capital flight, riots and bank failures... maybe. But after the apocalypse, Greece would eventually revert to its 1960's status: a poor but proud nation living off tourism, shipping, agriculture and fishing.

Jeff Burbank, 05/18/12

Freelance Writer, College Lecturer, Former Fulbright Scholar in Azerbaijan

As this year's host of Eurovision, Azerbaijan may well impress visitors with its beautiful, entertaining capital city of Baku and friendly, considerate people, but not with how its government treats the people.

Adharanand Finn, 05/18/12

Journalist

If you ask Kenyan runners why they are so fast, you usually get what feels like an unsatisfactory answer. It's all down to hard work, they'll say, or they'll talk about having a passion for running. But surely there's more to it than that.

Howard Steven Friedman, 05/19/12

Statistician/Economist for International Organization, Columbia University

Egypt has gone through great changes in a short period of time. It shocked the world when the protests, known here as the 25 January Revolution, overthrew the Mubarak regime. Now Egyptians and foreigners alike are eagerly anticipating the next steps.

Elisabeth Braw, 05/18/12

Senior Reporter, Metro International

The task Alexey Navalny has set himself, exposing corruption in Russia, seems too big for one person. But Russians are sick of corruption -- and this could topple Putin, Navalny says.

Rhianna Tyson Kreger, 05/18/12

Senior Officer, Global Security Institute

It is a dastardly shame and a mark of our collective embarrassment that, over 60 years since the destruction of Hiroshima, that nuclear weapons are still perceived as the best guarantor of respect, prestige and influence.

Malou Innocent and Tridivesh Singh Maini, 05/18/12

The U.S. and NATO officials continue to call for pursuing greater regional diplomacy. They have yet to put forward concrete ideas about the content of such a negotiation that will include all of Afghanistan's neighbors.

Amitai Etzioni, 05/18/12

GWU Professor

There are major foreign policy items to which the Russians attribute very great importance but are of little significance to us, and vice versa. Call it a major saliency differential. This seems to lay the ground for a major deal that has yet to be struck.

Robert Naiman, 05/18/12

Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy

Until now the Administration has gotten away with a having a two-faced policy: presented to the American people as a timetable for withdrawal, but understood by the Pentagon and the Republican leadership as allowing tens of thousands of U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan forever.

Ben Rawlence, 05/18/12

Senior Researcher, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch

The G-8 Summit invitation to Meles Zenawi demonstrates that whatever the Obama administration has learned from the Arab Spring, it doesn't apply to Africa. It should. Cosseting autocratic regimes rarely ends well for anybody.