A globalized world is by now a familiar fact of life. Building walls or moats may sound appealing but the future belongs to those who tend to their people and then boldly engage the rest of the world near and far.

I honestly don't know but if America continues to refuse to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions I see a bleak future not only for American society but for the world as a whole. This is a global problem that is not going away and the United States is an obstacle to solving it.

The global economic outlook remains fragile and uncertain. Global economic imbalances persist and we must address them or risk future instability.

I would like to see a future where artists think that they have a right to contemplate things like global warming.

Where globalization means as it so often does that the rich and powerful now have new means to further enrich and empower themselves at the cost of the poorer and weaker we have a responsibility to protest in the name of universal freedom.

On a level of simple personal survival understanding and forgiveness are crucial... whether in an intimate personal relationship or on a global level.

Without sound conservation and management measures fisheries will quickly become depleted and a basic component of global food security will be lost.

But Australia faces additional regional and global challenges also crucial to our nation's future - climate change questions of energy and food security the rise of China and the rise of India. And we need a strong system of global and regional relationships and institutions to underpin stability.

Global trade has advantages. For starters it allows those of us who live through winter to eat fresh produce year-round. And it provides economic benefits to farmers who grow that food.

I think it is important to ask ourselves as citizens not as Democrats attacking the administration but as citizens whether a world power can really provide global leadership on the basis of fear and anxiety?