Over the past decade, poverty reduction has been a focus of attention among policymakers, development planners and trade advocates alike. In South America, dramatic progress has been made in part due to conditional cash transfers, but future gains will depend on political accountability and governance. Meanwhile, the common language of poverty reduction ushered in by the Millennium Development Goals will have to be applied to a dramatically changed development landscape in 2015. And while trade liberalization produces both winners and losers, its impact on poverty reduction is on average positive.

The relationship between a country’s civilian leaders and its military command is the product of a distinct national history and political trajectory. In China, the People’s Liberation Army, historically a symbiotic branch of the Communist Party, is progressively emerging as a specialized force divorced from domestic politics. In Turkey, the ascendance of the political sphere under the AKP has transformed the societal role of the military, but the outcome remains fragile and unstable. And in Colombia, the prospect of peace after decades of war underscores the need for broad changes in the military’s role in domestic security.

In an age of ubiquitous information and instantaneous communication, local protests increasingly play out before a global audience. But perceptions from afar do not always correspond to realities on the ground. In China, despite Western perceptions of a gathering storm, local protests have become a managed, if costly, form of political participation. In the global public square, local dissent can be more easily diffused by social networks, but predicting pathways and sustaining action remain problematic. And while the ease of transmitting images has helped mobilize dissent, it has also weakened message control and other aspects of historically successful opposition movements.

Isolating so-called pariah states has been a recurring theme of international diplomacy since the end of the Cold War, but in many cases, isolation is more an illusion than a reality. Having diversified its foreign policy after the "Special Period" caused by the fall of the USSR, Cuba now once again faces an uncertain future in the aftermath of Hugo Chavez's death. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has used the West's efforts to isolate his regime to burnish his credentials among fellow post-colonial countries. And the constraints of contrasting pressures from Moscow and Brussels have left Belarus facing an uneasy trade-off.

Though often the object of state competition, science and the technologies that emerge from it have also been used as the basis for international cooperation. Particle physics has been particularly successful at harnessing science diplomacy to advance our understanding of the material world while capturing the popular imagination. In Antarctica, by contrast, where science was used to forestall geopolitical competition, the treaty system governing polar activity is coming under increasing political pressure. And miles above Earth, the International Space Station is an example of how interdependence can trump sovereignty in even the most sensitive of domains.

The past decade has seen major changes in Latin America's energy policy landscape. After two decades of market-based reforms, followed by a political backlash against the market, Latin American governments now demonstrate a diverse range of approaches to the role of the state in energy policy. As the region develops and its middle class grows, the tension between increased energy demand and heightened environmental concerns will increasingly determine the future of Latin American energy development. And with shale gas revolutionizing the regional energy outlook, Latin America would do well to learn from its recent experiences with energy integration.

East Africa is a region where both conflict and opportunity show little regard for national borders. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the M23 rebellion and Rwanda's involvement in it underscore the persistent legacy of identity and origin in the conflict-ridden eastern provinces. For U.S. policy in the region, a preoccupation with security and counterterrorism interests often conflicts with concerns over human rights and democratic governance. And amid the region's tangle of economic communities, the East African Community's dynamism offers a model for broader regional and continental integration.

As the U.S. military begins to draw down after a decade of war, budgetary constraints and a strategic rebalancing to Asia have made economy of force a guiding principle and capacity-building for partner militaries a watchword of U.S. forward defense. To win the small wars that will characterize conflict in the 21st century, the U.S. Army must learn from its experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan to improve its capability to train partner militaries. In Africa, enhancing partner militaries' ability to contain threats before they spread beyond the continent is central to Africom's mission. And the U.S. military's role in supporting counterterrorism efforts in the Philippines provides important lessons for similar missions in the future.

In both mature and young democracies, political extremism is becoming a new normal. But deciding just how to deal with extremist parties poses confounding challenges to electoral systems premised on tolerance. In Europe, far-right extremism has proved to be surprisingly resilient and is today at its postwar height. And in many Arab Spring countries, Salafi parties have opted to enter the political arena for the first time, overcoming their ideological objections to electoral politics in order to pursue their vision of an Islamic state.

As U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to begin his second term on Jan. 21, America’s strategic challenges include striking new balances in Asia, securing red lines in the Middle East, shoring up old ties in Europe and capitalizing on potential partnerships in Latin America and Africa. Throughout all these regions, trade offers a common thread of opportunity. Amitav Acharya, Matthew Duss, Mark Leonard, Hans Kundnani, Christopher Sabatini, Richard Downie and Edward Alden discuss Obama's second-term priorities in foreign policy.