The World Security Institute's Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is a non-profit news organization founded in 1996 - at the cusp, serendipitously, of the internet era -- promoting under-reported international stories. Twelve years later we live in a world where coverage of celebrity gossip regularly competes with international news coverage on television and in the dwindling pages of newspapers. The Center's goal, especially today, is something we can all get behind, namely, "to raise the standards of global affairs reporting, reach a diverse American public and broaden international news consumption." Now, more than ever, as foreign newspaper bureaus are closing, and international news coverage is in decline, important stories are slipping through the grid.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is a welcome journalistic addition to this brave, new digital age. It views this present moment as an opportunity - through reader interactivity - to bring to the fore stories that have been previously ignored, or only briefly glossed over, by the traditional mainstream media. The Center has partnered with Helium to sponsor the Pulitzer Center Global Issues/Citizen Voices Contest in which readers can either peer rank the entries, or actually participate as an independent voice on an issue of critical global importance.

The Pulitzer's current essay contest titles were pre-selected because they reflect one of the center's global reporting projects. The titles are: 1) How is the struggle for water, such as in Ethiopia and Kenya, shaping conflicts in this century? 2) How does stigma and discrimination, as witnessed in Jamaica, perpetuate the global HIV/AIDS epidemic? 3) What are the key obstacles to obtaining sustainable peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and what steps are necessary to overcome them? And, 4) What role should the US play in reducing the production of illicit drugs-such as cocaine and heroin-in places like Bolivia and Afghanistan?

Click on one of the above questions and add your voice in fewer than 750 words. The deadline to enter this third round of the contest is May 30.