All Global Viewpoint

In reality, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will decide Iran's presidential election. That is why actively boycotting this election would be an act to regain dignity as well as be a mass, nonviolent uprising that could end a regime that prolongs its existence by moving Iran from crisis to crisis.

China's President Xi Jinping is both a nationalist and a reformer. President Obama must understand the motivations for Mr. Xi’s nationalism, so that as the two leaders meet at a summit in California today, the US-China relationship will benefit. And the world will applaud.

Those who want to preserve Europe's unity should not dismiss nationalist sentiments or frustration over austerity policies. Europe must forge a common identity that leaves room for diversity while delivering opportunity and security through a strong but limited European government.

There must always be a correlation in Europe between the willingness to engage in structural reforms on the one hand and the willingness to show solidarity on the other. We need structural reforms. But we must also add growth components to the austerity program.

In an interview, Google’s Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen say the connectivity of the digital age will empower individuals as never before. This will make revolutionary movements against autocratic regimes such as China easier to start – but harder to finish.

A change of mind-set about Egypt's history and future is necessary in that country. The history of nations is not defined by heroes in the presidential palace but by heroes on the street. Egypt must focus on building citizen-led institutions to best meet current and future challenges.

Girls, not adults, are forming a liberation movement – demanding their rights, especially to education. They've organized child-marriage-free zones, demonstrations to support Malala Yousafzai, petitions against child labor, and a growing movement exposing child trafficking.

The interventionist role of the military has mostly disappeared in Latin America. But the temptation of populist politics is greater than ever in some countries, while others are resisting the short-term demands of voters in favor of the long-term sustainability of society. Here's a look at six countries.

In an interview, the former president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, says that today’s global financial crisis is mainly a political failure rather than an economic one. The US will probably do much better in its financial recovery because its central bank, unlike Europe’s, has the powers it needs.

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution, says that by falsifying, misrepresenting, and taking critical facts out of context, the Academy-Award winning film 'Argo' delivers a pro-CIA message at the cost of the Iranian people and history.

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng says China's 'Communist Party sits brazenly above the constitution and the law and makes no effort to reform.' But he says 'social progress is inevitable' and that 'the balance of power between officialdom and the people is shifting.'

President Obama and China's incoming president Xi Jinping should meet to revalidate and re-energize the US-China relationship. Whether this relationship is vital and robust, or weak and full of suspicion, will affect the whole world.

Chinese-style soft nationalism takes pride in Confucian values and should be the way of the future. But can it spread from Nanjing to the rest of China? There are reasons to be optimistic.

The upcoming Italian elections are a contest between the populism of short-term fixes championed by Silvio Berlusconi and the long-term reforms of Mario Monti necessary to make Italy’s economy solvent, competitive, and sustainable over the long run.

For far too long the pervasive Middle Eastern qualification of Jews as murderers and bloodsuckers was dismissed in the West as an extreme view of radical fringe groups. But it is not. It is time for the region's secular movements to start a counter-education in tolerance.

A world adrift desperately needs global thinkers, most of all from Asia. Singapore's Kishore Mahbubani fits the bill with his new book, in which he calls for a more robust UN, IMF, and WTO – led by the emerging global powers. Let’s hope his optimism about this revival is justified.

Many conclude that religion is causing turmoil in Egypt. Islam is not the problem. The turmoil comes from the gap between expectations of speedy change by those who made the 2011 revolution and the slow process of dismantling the old way of life while building a new society.

Technological innovation has made the US economy more productive, but this new economy creates fewer jobs, and wages are suffering. Preparing workers for an era when productivity and employment are no longer linked will be the grand challenge of the next generation.

Since 2002, Turkey's growth strategy, fiscal discipline, and structural reforms have helped it become the world's 16th largest economy. Last year, Turkey's figures for growth, public borrowing, long-term debt, and unemployment were vastly better than Europe’s.

The American creed of equal opportunity is in danger of becoming Hollywood fiction. Wealth concentration, manufacturing's demise, and technology eliminating jobs are destroying upward mobility. We must invest in education, training, and R&D. We must also pay for it.