A month after assuming power, the Biden administration has signalled the most important geographical shift in US foreign policy since the 1970s.

Back in 1975, the United States retreated from Asia after its humiliating military defeat in Vietnam. The next four decades were spent trying to bring peace to the Middle East, and then, pouring trillions of dollars and thousands of lives into a largely fruitless effort to subdue violent religious and nationalist responses to their failed peace efforts.