Were a serious attempt to be made to refurbish the multilateral system, the US would be the linchpin. As it happens, though, it is also the nation best able to go it alone.

There is a striking paradox here: the player that stands at the centre of the present global system would have less to lose than the rest from its demise. More than any other the US, to adapt Mrs Albright’s sobriquet, is the world’s self-sufficient power.