Last December, the US government published its National Security Strategy, a 33-page briefing on the Trump administration’s view of national security concerns and how it intends to deal with them. In general, the document signalled a more conciliatory mood towards Russia and China than previous administrations – both Biden’s presidency, and Trump’s first term – and projected a view of the world where great powers have their spheres of influence. There is no intimation in the text of the great fiasco Trump was about to unleash barely three months after its publication: the initiation, with Israel, of a war with...