The American system of electoral democracy, in which voters and a free press have important roles to play, has declined in recent years. Given how the last US presidential election went, the country is hardly in a position to preach the value of democracy to the world.

It was the West that made the mistake of emphasising a military threat that did not exist, expanding Nato and not listening to Russia’s fears. What is needed now is not a new cold war but wise Western leadership on how to treat Russia.

Believers – in Christianity, Judaism and Islam – must oppose Donald Trump’s recent decision and push for the internationalisation of parts of East Jerusalem

Who makes the law of the sea as China and Vietnam clash over China moving an oil rig close to an island some 150 nautical miles from the Vietnamese mainland?

The big immigration debate is often the big obscurantism debate. The wool is pulled over our eyes and obtaining clarity is not easy. The vested interests in continued immigration are enormous - first and foremost, the migrants themselves who are seeking an escape from poverty and lack of opportunity at home.

The West, the US especially, has got itself into a fretful mood over the rise of China. Quite unnecessarily so. The Chinese growth rate is slowing. As a BBC commentator said recently, reviewing this week's government-issued statistics, China will never hit double-digit growth again. Glitzy Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and their like, where growth is still well over 10 per cent a year, make up only part of China's economy. Much of the country has an income per head more akin to Ecuador.

In 1776, Adam Smith published his Wealth of Nations, which has guided economists and political thinkers ever since. It marked the start of the Industrial Revolution that began in England and then spread throughout most of the world. That was 237 years ago.