Despite the superficial conviviality of Donald Trump’s whistle-stop tour through Asia this week, we watched first-hand the dysfunctional reality of the US’ disengagement from the world of multilateralism. Trump delivered a speech at the US-Asean Summit in Malaysia, but skipped the main Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ meeting in South Korea. Overall, he was more interested in cutting bilateral deals on the sidelines of the summits. In Malaysia, he finalised unilateral tariff...