The US has failed repeatedly since World War II to realise its overseas ambitions. It failed to stop China falling to communists in 1949, it did not prevent the USSR from becoming a nuclear power, was thwarted in Korea, humiliated in Vietnam and failed in Lebanon in 1984. Obama leaves a US still leagues ahead in military power, the dollar the preferred currency of the world, and a nation well-positioned to respond to an Asia-centric future. His foreign policy represents a response to the threat of decline, and one which has prevented it. As the President himself put it: “Anyone who tells you that America is in decline doesn’t know what he is talking about”