He's done it again. After pulling his country out of treaties governing everything from trade to the protection of the environment, President Donald Trump has just announced that the United States plans to withdraw from a landmark nuclear arms agreement with Russia.

Mr Trump's proclaimed intention to pull the US out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was met with the predictable cries of despair from the legions of armchair strategists and arms control specialists, most of whom have dismissed the move as just another example of the US President's destructive approach to any international obligation accepted by his predecessors in the White House.