Few US secretaries of state have come into office with the global renown that Hillary Clinton enjoys. The new chief diplomat-in-waiting is recognised across the world, her surname a brand that has grown in international popularity as discontent has mounted with the administration of George W. Bush.

But her precise record in her new area of responsibility has been a matter of dispute – not least among the cohorts of Barack Obama, the president-elect, who nominated Mrs Clinton to her new job on Monday.