For decades, the United States Navy has served as the foremost symbol of America’s power in the Asia-Pacific. Few images could have been as damaging to that reputation as that of the guided-missile destroyer John S McCain limping into Singapore on Monday after a pre-dawn collision with an oil tanker punched a hole in the warship’s hull. The accident occurred as America’s allies in the region have been alarmed by missteps committed by President Donald Trump and his aides. Prof Joseph Chinyong Liow, a dean at NTU, said in a recent article in The Straits Times that the US had become a “distracted power,” and that turmoil in Washington had “disrupted the administration’s ability to think strategically about global affairs”.