Have we learned anything from the Cold War?

At a time when the U.S. is fighting wars on two fronts, the recent publication of "The Hawk and the Dove – Paul Nitze, George Kennan, And the History Of the Cold War" has reminded the world how important the lessons of history can be. What policies are more effective: aggression or reconciliation? That's how Nicholas Thompson makes a work of two contrasting biographies relevant and important to us today.

Nicholas Thompson: tech guru, recording artist, and now historian, is the ultimate jack-of-all-trades. His day job is as a senior editor at Wired magazine delving into everything from the existence of a Russian Doomsday machine to the latest developments in smartphones.

Send Nicholas your questions on anything from secret Russian weapons to the inside buzz on the new Mac tablet. We'll put them to him live during Friday's show.

Advances in modern medicine have transformed the experience of giving birth, making it safer for women.

Ricki Lake has become an advocate of natural childbirth.

Yet a recent study found that more than 2 million mothers and newborns die each year from childbirth complications. The study said that most of those deaths occurred in rural areas - and could have been prevented if there was better access to life-saving emergency procedures, like caesarean sections.

But in some parts of the world, the arguement runs, the procedure is overused and many women are going under the knife unnecessarily.

Is natural best when it comes to childbirth? Or should we take advantage of medical technology?

The World Health Organization recommends that the optimal rate of C-sections should be between 5 percent and 10 percent because of the risks associated with the procedure.

However in the United States, for example, 28 percent of babies each year are born by caesarean section.

Actress and TV chat show personality Ricki Lake is perhaps best known for movies such as "Hairspray," as well as being a weight-loss role model who went from 260 pounds to less than half of that.

Now she is also growing a reputation as an advocate for natural birth.

As a producer for the documentary "The Business of Being Born" and co-author of "Your Best Birth," Lake has questioned whether a mother should receive expensive and, in some cases, risky fertility drugs and medical procedures in order to undergo a successful child birth.

Ricki will be joining Connect The World on Monday to discuss her experiences with motherhood and childbirth.

Send us your comments and questions for Ricki and we’ll do our best to use them on Monday's show.

It's a centuries-old business that spans continents, can offer up multi-billion-dollar rewards but has also claimed many, many victims: the sex industry.

Campaigners against the industry have often claimed that it shields a horrific variety of abuse, with victims coerced into sexual slavery. The answer, they believe, is to clamp down on the porn trade.

Their opponents counter that the answer is to legalize the porn business, allowing those who want to provide a service to consumers do so while driving out criminals.

Should prostitution be legalized? Would this reduce the exploitation of sex workers - or simply make it worse? Send us your comments and we will try to use them in Thursday's live chat on Connect The World.

The show has looked at the sex industry throughout the world this past week.

In many industrialized nations, the adult entertainment industry has been hit by the global economic downturn, with Web piracy a particularly big threat to the revenues of the business.

David McKenzie has reported on the example of child prostitutes in Kenya, where foreign tourists pay for sex that would be classified as rape in their countries. As drought and chaos engulfs Kenya, so more and more children are turning to sex for income.

In Afghanistan, correspondent Atia Abawi highlighted the case of young boys who are lured or snatched from their families and forced to become sex slaves by powerful men.

And in Hong Kong, girls as young as 13 are selling their time and often their bodies for quick cash. The practice is called "compensated dating," reported Pauline Chiou, with young girls spending time with an older man for a fee on the understanding that the "date" can involve sex.

Watch the Connect The World webcast and have your say as Becky Anderson discusses the issues and answers your questions. CNN.com Live at 2200 GMT/2300 CET with accompanying live Skype text chat from 2130 GMT/2230 CET.

Time to think laterally, it's time for the Connect The World Six Degrees challenge. All you need to do is connect two personalities in six moves.

This week we want you to link former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan to Californian first lady Maria Shriver.

Leave your submissions in the comments section below, and the team will pick the most creative connection, and we'll announce the winner on Friday's show.

Remember: you need five other people between those two: no more, no less. If you want your friends to take the challenge as well, then click the “share post” button below. To see previous challenges, click here. Happy connecting!

Calls for an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba are growing louder. After nearly 50 years, most Americans, even many Cuban exiles, say it's time to lift it. On Wednesday the United Nations voted overwhelmingly once again to condemn the resolution and urge an end to the policy, as it has for the past 17 years.

The trade embargo prevents Cubans from buying new goods from around the world.

Washington imposed the tough sanctions on its Cold War foe in a bid to topple Fidel Castro but it's found itself increasingly isolated on the issue.

Susan McDade, U.N. resident coordinator, says: "I'm not an expert on U.S. politics but what I do know is that any head of state, if they were to see the overwhelming majority of countries being against a domestic policy would use that as part of their domestic discourse."

The embargo has blocked almost all bilateral trade, making it hard to get many medicines and spare parts for everything from cars to refrigerators. Cuba says the embargo has caused $96 billion in losses while cargo ships from any country that dock at Cuban ports can't trade in U.S. ports for the following six months.

Many Cuban dissidents call it a failure and argue that it gives the Castro brothers an excuse for the country's economic woes.

In the U.S., backers of the embargo say it keeps money out of the hands of a repressive regime. And the political strength of the Cuban-American community in South Florida has deterred both Republican and Democratic presidents from lifting the embargo.

But recent generations of Cuban-Americans have been less interested in clamping down on Castro's regime. A recent poll taken mainly in Florida showed as many Cuban-Americans wanted the embargo lifted as those who want it maintained.

So is it finally time to lift the embargo? Is it in fact counter-productive in cementing the Castros' grip on power? Should the U.S. even be using its economic might to topple the Cuban government? Or do you believe the embargo is justified and effective? Send us your comments and we will use them on tonight's show.

Where does one begin to define Rosi Sexton: PhD, businesswoman, writer or mother? But despite all these feats, Sexton may be better known for her accomplishments in a sport that has been derided by some critics as the equivalent of human cock-fighting. She is the most successful professional female mixed-martial artist and cage fighter in Britain.

Rosi Sexton has lost only one of the 10 mixed martial arts bouts of her career.

Rosi Sexton has lost only one of the 10 mixed martial arts bouts of her career.

Having already received her doctorate in integrated computer science from the University of Manchester as well as a mathematics degree from Cambridge, Sexton is in the final year of an osteopathy course at Oxford.

While balancing a full academic load, Sexton finds time to run a gym in Oxford, write a regular column and feature articles for a magazine while looking after her four-year-old son.

But as Sexton would reluctantly admit, nobody can multi-task quite like her. Sexton has fought Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) matches since 2002 in the U.S., UK, Costa Rica, Russia, and Canada. Her most recent fight was on June 19, 2009 which she won resoundingly. She has lost only one of her 10 MMA bouts.

Unsurprisingly, Sexton has neglected other hobbies amid her busy life but has hinted she hopes to be a concert pianist once again. Until then, she will be appearing on the show later this week as Connector of the Day to talk about how she engages in a violent sport whilst balancing career, hobbies and motherhood.

Send your comments and questions to us and we’ll put the most interesting ones to Sexton on this Thursday’s show.

In 2005, Michael Vaughan became the first captain of England’s cricket team to win the coveted Ashes series against Australia since Mike Gatting in 1986-87.

Vaughan's finest hour came in 2005 after England's Ashes win over Australia.

In his five-year spell as skipper of the national team, Vaughan developed a reputation as an astute on-field tactician as well as a talented batsman.

Indeed his batting proficiency saw him climb briefly to the top of the Test batting rankings during the 2002-2003 season.

Earlier this year, Manchester-born Vaughan decided to retire from the game altogether after a combination of injury and loss of form prevented him from making his Ashes swansong against the touring Australians.

But the record books will show he was England's most successful Test captain of all time with 26 wins from 51 matches.

Michael will be appearing on the show later this week as our “Connector of the day,” and will talk about his career, the current state of the game, and moves to expand its global profile beyond the Commonwealth countries that current dominate the Test scene.

Send your comments, questions to us and we’ll put the best ones to Michael on the show.

As the title of their hit song "Rabbit Heart 'Raise it Up'" suggests, British band “Florence and the Machine” have indeed raised their profile considerably in the last year.

Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine performs at the 2009 Mercury awards.

Even before their album “Lungs” debuted quietly at number two on the UK music charts the week after Michael Jackson’s death in July, Florence and the Machine had already attracted considerable attention.

The band’s focal point, singer-songwriter Florence Welch, received a Brit Award for Critics’ Choice and a Mercury Prize nomination.

Like many performing artists, the discovery of Welch’s talent happened by chance. Almost three years ago, while an art student in South London, Welch was overheard singing at a local pub by indie-DJ Mairead Nash who liked what she had heard. Nash invited Welch to sing at an open-mike night the following week at another local pub.

Not having a stage name, or much time to rehearse prior to Nash’s gig, Welch improvised on stage with her vocals and with her stage name. It has been rumoured that the name Florence and the Machine was conceived on her way to the pub that evening.

Welch has since evolved into an emerging popular artist playing before crowds much larger than her local pub, having performed at the Glastonbury Festival and before a nationwide audience on the BBC’s Electric Proms program.

And Florence will be joining CNN Wednesday to talk about her music, her recent success and the band's curious name.

Send us your comments, questions for Florence and we’ll do our best to use them on Wednesday’s show.

From banking to manufacturing, virtually every sector of the economy has at some stage been adversely affected by the global downturn.

Many in the porn industry blame piracy, particularly online, for falling revenues.

The adult entertainment industry was viewed by many in the industry as “bullet-proof” when it comes to recession, but this opinion has shifted over the past 12 months.

Mark Kernes, editor of Adult Video News, has been covering the world of porn for over 30 years. He says the industry in the United States was worth around $6 billion before the recession but now estimates filming on new productions is down by as much as 50 percent.

“"It’s the first time I am aware of that the industry has been affected by a downturn in the general economy,” he said.

"At its height I would say there were about 5,000 people employed in various positions, from warehouse people to executives. And perhaps another thousand performers."

But this has changed, he says, with staff being cut and performers now earning much less as budgets are slashed.

Leading porn producer Wicked Pictures has also pointed to the damage being done by piracy, with products being leaked to the Internet and viewed for free.

Do you think the adult industry can recover? Should we care? Send us your comments below.

Married to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver is the first lady of California, an award-winning journalist, best-selling author and social campaigner.

Maria Shriver is known as the First Lady of California.

Distinguished by her family background, she is a member of the prominent Kennedy clan - daughter of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargeant Shriver, the niece of President John F. Kennedy.

While she supports her Republican husband in most of his political endeavors, Shriver publicly endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during the U.S. elections.

Unfortunately she made the news for the wrong reasons this month when she was caught using her cell phone whilst driving. The gossip columns did not miss the fact that it was her own husband’s law that she was violating!

On a more positive note, Shriver will be talking to CNN Tuesday about her latest project – hosting the annual Women’s Conference in California, a forum to “inspire, empower and educate women to be the architects of change,” according to its Web site.

One of the main issues on the agenda is climate change and how women can be at the forefront of initiatives to combat this critical issue.

She is also the founder of the We Connect campaign which aims to help working families of California become more financially secure by connecting them to programs and resources across the state.

If you have a question for Maria about the conference, her career in journalism, her social causes, or what it’s like to be married to Arnie, comment below and we’ll put the best of them to her in the show.