Irish Examiner View: Micheál Martin Must Create Art of the Deal in US

The challenge for Washington is no longer whether it possesses sufficient capabilities, but whether the political system can align those capabilities behind a coherent long-term priority.

It is ... inevitable that the direction the country is going in will have to change.

During the Cold War, the United States occupied the apex of this triangular dynamic, pitting China and the USSR against each other. Today, it is Beijing that occupies that apex.

The Beijing summit did not produce a major agreement between the great powers on the region, but it firmly established that Middle Eastern crises are now deeply tied to the great-power dialogue.

Trump’s willingness to defend an ally may depend upon whether he currently gets along with its political leadership.