Madison Schramm and Ashley Harden, 2/3/12

By silencing reformist candidates, Tehran's leadership is doing the country a disservice. The biggest threat to Iranian sovereignty isn't domestic dissent, but government repression.

Jeanne Faulkner, 2/3/12

Chairperson for advocacy, CARE; nurse, columnist, author

When my daughter turns 12 next month she'll have a birthday cake and a slumber party, not a wedding cake and marriage. As an American girl, she's lucky to grow up in a culture where girls can choose who and when they'll marry.

Yoani Sanchez, 2/3/12

Award-winning Cuban blogger

From the hole in the floor that serves as a toilet, a rat emerges and looks curiously at the curled up man lying there. Outside shouts are heard, metal banging, and the general noise of the Aguadores prison, one of the most feared in eastern Cuba.

Raghida Dergham, 2/3/12

Columnist and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, Al Hayat

Today, Russia finds itself in a state of calculated siege, emerging through the new semi-alliance between the Americans -- and the West in general -- and the Islamists. The Barack Obama administration seems to be at the forefront of this new alliance.

David Bromwich, 2/2/12

Professor of Literature at Yale

Iran is headed to become for Obama in 2012 what the economy was in 2010: a controllable crisis which, through personal inaction and a conventional acquiescence in failed policies, threatens to pass utterly beyond his control.

Shai Baitel, 2/3/12

Expert in Middle Eastern politics and international affairs

Whoever agrees that the preferred solution to the conflict are two-states-for-two-peoples needs to realize that this possibility to implement is gradually slipping away while no progress, however small or incremental, is being made.

Gilbert Doumit, 2/3/12

Managing Partner, Beyond Reform & Development

Though the revolution united most Libyans, the inspiration driving revolutionary groups to fight against the Gaddafi regime was not the same.

Human Rights First, 2/3/12

Nonprofit, Nonpartisan International Human Rights Organization

When Arben's visa was denied, a staffer at one office told me that my only options were to divorce Arben or move to Kosovo. I don't think I should have to do either of those things. I married Arben for better or for worse. I take that vow seriously, and I want to make my life with him.

Georgianne Nienaber, 2/3/12

Investigative journalist, author, Haiti relief worker

Simon Adams, 2/3/12

Executive director, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Diplomacy is a shadowy and unpredictable business, but one thing is certain. If Russia uses its veto this week to block a second UN Security Council resolution on Syria, innocent people will die.

Amnesty International, 2/3/12

Defending Human Rights Worldwide

Now is the time for President Obama to become more actively involved, working to drastically revise the Quartet's approach and show that he can make a real difference to the lives of Palestinians and Israelis.

Dan Ehrlich, 2/2/12

Journalist and Broadcaster

From an American, and even a Euro perspective, Afghanistan could be another example of the pick and choose hypocrisy the West plays at when dealing with armed conflicts. It comes down to what's their worth to NATO? Afghanistan is no longer worth it. Of course, if the Iraqi oil fields were there?

Lilac Sigan, 2/3/12

Writer and commentator

It's comfortable for Abbas to keep selling this lie, and for a good reason: everyone seems to be buying it. But the truth is that when Abbas was offered this deal he supposedly wants, he refused. Why? Because he doesn't just want "a Palestinian state." He wants much much more.

Stephanie Knox, 2/2/12

I'm from Northern Ireland, living in London and working as an arts PR manager

It is little wonder the young are fleeing Dublin - with unemployment at 14% the figures hurt, and the reality stings too, as a trip to Dublin will testify, its prices out of control and a sense of gloominess prevailing. The Celtic Tiger that roared so ferociously in the 90s has been exposed as something of a shadow puppet.

Christopher Brauchli, 2/3/12

Lawyer

Permitting the United States to fly drones wherever it wants is the price a country may have to pay for friendship with the United States. Some countries may think that price too high.

Tiernan Douieb, 2/2/12

Views on the news from a man who wears shoes

We are told that this has all been done for the benefit of the UK, and to stop us falling into further debt, while the rest of Europe just looks at us as though we are that awkward woman that no matter how many drinks you've bought and compliments you give her, still thinks you don't like her. Sigh.

Themba Mzingwane, 2/2/12

Handy man living in South Africa

I am a Zimbabwean living and working in South Africa, having recently become a legal immigrant after years of dodging police and living in constant fear of deportation.