The searing American presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump left Hillary well ahead in terms of solid policies, which follow a coherent world view. It also showed how dangerous Trump’s foreign policy would be for the United States and its allies. But Trump’s shocking bravado meant that he still carried on making up his one-liners however much he was exposed by Hillary as a liar, a racist and an ignorant fool. He kept trying to brush off charges that would have sunk other candidates in other races, and now both the media and Hillary’s campaign only have a few weeks to call him to account on the same level as any other politician.

The foreign policy section was the most disastrous for Trump. When Hillary accused him of being dismissive of Nato, Trump wandered off into a diatribe about how America’s allies will have to pay for the privilege of being defended. He listed Germany, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Japan and then said, “They do not pay us what they should be paying us, because we are providing tremendous service and losing a fortune. We lose on everything.”

Trump’s failure to understand that any military alliance is not based on commercial conditionality is very dangerous. America has agreed to defend its allies in order to help preserve the security of the global order and the unconditionality of such defence pacts is deliberate so as to deter potential aggressors. For example, because Russia knows that the US will come to the defence of any Nato member, it makes an attack on a Nato member less likely.

But the debate was dominated by the candidates’ bitter exchanges over a range of topics and their success will be determined by how many of the accusations are believed by the American public. For example, Hillary made a success of denouncing Trump for spreading a “racist lie” by falsely asserting that US President Barack Obama was not born in America.

Trump made a fool of himself by saying Hillary has been fighting Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) all her life. Hillary is 68 years old, while Daesh was formed recently. Hillary successfully accused Trump of calling climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese, which he denied on stage, although he certainly said it in a 2012 tweet.

On balance, Hillary won the debate and the international community should be grateful for that.