A month before leaving office, Condoleezza Rice, who on Tuesday will end her stint as secretary of state, laid out an international prospectus grim enough to daunt any president.

Ms Rice admitted that US policy on Iran had so far failed to achieve its main objective of reining in Tehran’s nuclear programme; that relations with Russia had fallen far short of her hopes; and that it was unclear how much Pakistan – the country increasingly identified as the centre of the struggle against Islamist extremism – really would crack down on militants. As if that was not problematic enough, in the subsequent days, the Gaza war erupted.