The key word for Joe Biden’s foreign policy is revival – of vital alliances, partnerships in multilateral organisations, the US taking up familiar roles on the world stage. A lot of ‘re’ words have been bandied about by the commentators and analysts – reset, re-engagement, resume, renew. But it cannot be a story of going back to where Biden left off as Vice President to Barack Obama just over four years ago. There can be no back to the future to the world of early 2016. Too much has happened since then. It cannot be a story of going back to arrangements such as the Iran nuclear deal – the JCPOA – ‘just like that’ as the late, great Tommy Cooper might have said. Even rejoining the clubs that Trump quit like the Paris Climate accord and the World Health Organisation might not be so easy.