Samantha Power

I think Obama is right when he talks about the rule of law as a cornerstone of what the United States should stand for.

I've been a war reporter and a human rights defender. A professor and a columnist. A diplomat and - by far most thrillingly - a mother. And what I've learned from all these experiences is that any change worth making is going to be hard. Period.

I think Obama is right when he talks about the rule of law as a cornerstone of what the United States should stand for. That can encompass our elected officials' adherence to law and our country's return to the Geneva Conventions.

American decision-makers must understand how damaging a foreign policy that privileges order and profit over justice really is in the long term.

In the '90s, there was scant presidential leadership and insufficient domestic political mobilization for foreign policy grounded in human rights.

The U.S. government engages with many countries around the world in official dialogues on human rights.

Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant intervention elsewhere.

We are not accepting that countries just get to sit back and let the United States meet threats that are going to roost in their worlds just as easily as they are in ours.

In the 2000 election, George W. Bush, who had shirked military service, succeeded in presenting himself as more reliable on national security than Al Gore.

As even a democracy like the United States has shown, waging war can benefit a leader in several ways: it can rally citizens around the flag, it can distract them from bleak economic times, and it can enrich a country's elites.

Since 9/11, there has been a huge leap in people wanting to get personally involved in public service and international affairs.

Democracies are expense-averse and they think in terms of short-term, political interests rather than a long-term interest in stability.