And there are other clear commitments Mr Biden has made, such as reinstating the nuclear deal with Iran and returning the US to the Paris Agreement on climate change. "We have to salvage our reputation, rebuild confidence in our leadership, and mobilise our country," Mr Biden explained in the only coherent foreign policy manifesto he published back in March.

But while all this indicates a return to a more predictable America, it is a fallacy to assume that what we are about to experience is a wholesale restoration of old certainties.