A fresh US face at the UN, but his baggage has some worried

In 1992, the Pentagon produced a controversial document, the Draft Defence Planning Guidance, which described a bold, unprecedented role for the United States after winning the cold war.

The over-arching political-military strategy for the US would be to prevent the emergence of another superpower, and that the US would act to defend its interests unilaterally.

There was no mention of the United Nations, with the suggestion that instead of working through the UN, the US 'should expect future coalitions to be ad hoc assemblies'.

The draft was leaked and critics pounced, calling it a blueprint for US hegemony and an impossible job for the US as a 'global policeman'. But then-defence secretary Dick Cheney liked the thinking behind the document and singled out its author for commendation. That author, then an anonymous Pentagon staffer, was Zalmay Khalilzad, who this week was nominated to be the next US ambassador to the UN.

Mr Khalilzad takes over from John Bolton, the cantankerous UN-hater who famously said that 'there is no such thing as the United Nations' and that if its headquarters in New York lost 10 floors, it wouldn't make any difference.

When Democrats won the Congressional elections in November, it became clear that Mr Bolton - who had served 18 months without being confirmed by the Senate - would never get confirmed, and he stepped down.