Last weekend, Tony Blinken, former diplomat and current foreign policy adviser to Joe Biden, made the case for good competition.

The US, he said, needs to be engaged in a revivifying competition with China. It needs to be “a race to the top, not a race to the bottom”.

That race, he predicted, would be won by the United States.

Yes, so long as the US does the following:

• Set its own house in order by sorting out domestic governance issues
• Repair schisms with allies
• Pursue a moral course in domestic and international affairs and embrace the task of moral leadership
• Champion domestic democracy and the same, further afield.

Is this possible?

Yes, but only if Donald Trump is defeated on November 3.