Peter Orszag argues that reforming medical malpractice law to include "safe harbors" that protect doctors who follow evidence-based medical guidelines could bring down health-care costs without reducing the quality of care.

Pope Benedict XVI's gave these remarks at his final General Audience on February 27, 2013, at St. Peter's Square.

Inequality is rising across the post-industrial capitalist world. The problem is not caused by politics and politics will never be able to eliminate it. But simply ignoring it could generate a populist backlash. Governments must accept that today as ever, inequality and insecurity are the inevitable results of market operations. Their challenge is to find ways of shielding citizens from capitalism's adverse consequences -- even as they preserve the dynamism that produces capitalism's vast economic and cultural benefits in the first place.

Since their inception in 2000, The Millennium Development Goals have revolutionized the global aid business, using specific targets to help mobilize and guide development efforts. They have encouraged world leaders to tackle multiple dimensions of poverty simultaneously and provided a standard for judging performance. As their 2015 expiration looms, the time has come to bank those successes and focus on what comes next.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says the Facebook COO's new book Lean In encourages mothers with careers to opt out of the parent-or-careerwoman binary and firmly choose both.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that with the help of the private and public sector, women entrepreneurs are helping to combat global poverty, but more work is needed to overcome the challenges of access to finance, access to markets, and access to skills-building and networks.

As the 113th U.S. Congress considers an overhaul of the country's immigration system, Task Force members Richard Land, Eliseo Medina, and project director Edward Alden discuss U.S. policy options and political prospects for comprehensive change.

Eboo Patel leads a conversation on his new book Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America, and his work as a Muslim interfaith adviser to the Obama administration.

Peter Orszag argues that simplifying access to financial aid can help more Americans earn college degrees, reduce inequality, and boost economic growth.

Julia E. Sweig addresses the transition of Catholic demographics and the cultural power of the papacy.

The surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has given rise to speculations that the next pontiff to lead the Catholic Church will hail from the developing world, says expert James P. McCartin.

"Flows of migrants and refugees influence and change the social, economic and political dynamics of their destinations -- and the places they have left behind," writes the Inter Press Service on human migration. In the United States, politicians are saying they are committed to reform of the U.S. immigration system. Immigration Research Links provides resources for news, legislation, statistics, organizations, and reports on immigration.

France says it will withdraw from Mali once an African peacekeeping force is in place. To keep Islamists at bay, the United States is considering increasing its military presence in the region. A better approach is to focus on fixing the governance issues that fuel radicalism to begin with, says John Campbell.

Shannon K. O'Neil says after Republicans' election-year drubbing, the United States has an historic opportunity to fix its broken immigration system. And the arguments against reform simply don't hold up anymore.

As renewed bipartisan efforts to reform U.S. immigration policy get under way, CFR's Edward Alden gives three reasons why the time for reform may finally be at hand.

President Obama gave these remarks in Las Vegas on January 29, 2013, the day after a bipartisan group of senators released their framework for immigration reform. Both plans include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and tightened border security.

A bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators proposed a framework for immigration reform released January 28, 2013 and President Obama outlined his plan for reform in a speech on January 29, 2013. Both plans include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and tightened border security.

The Pentagon's decision to allow women in combat elates female veterans, who say all they are asking for is not guaranteed spots, but a chance to meet the same standards and have the same opportunities as men, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

Beijing has pursued increasing media regulations under President Hu Jintao. But as a flourishing China expands its international influence, many of its citizens hunger for a free flow of information.

Ongoing arguments over U.S. immigration policy play out against concerns about curbing illegal immigration, changing demographics, and maintaining the country's global competitive edge, explains this Backgrounder.