Shockingly enough, what people say during campaigns is meant to increase the odds they get elected.

Sovereignty must be redefined if states are to cope with globalisation.

You cannot be effective if those who work for you are not. So building their effectiveness ought to be a priority.

If the president Donald Trump had connected the Jerusalem question to some other positions, linking it to Israeli and Palestinian behavior or putting the Jerusalem statement in a larger context of U.S. policy, it could have potentially advanced the peace process. But I don't see how singling it out might help.

Donald Trump is much more suspicious of international institutions much more skeptical of the contributions that America's traditional allies have made more willing, in some cases, to entertain the possibility of getting along with countries who some would call an adversary, such as Mr. Putin's Russia.