The UK referendum and the forthcoming US presidential elections herald a world in flux. Next week’s Nato summit in Warsaw will show the alliance has tensions of its own

As recently as two weeks ago, the idea that Nato leaders might be looking forward to their summit in Warsaw as an opportunity for some rest and recreation would have been fanciful in the extreme. But that was then. With many of the same leaders having spent recent days rushing between crisis meetings in the wake of the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, the meeting in Poland next week suddenly looks blissfully routine.

No one, for a start, is threatening to leave – least of all the UK. Indeed, Nato membership becomes even more important as the country prepares its departure from the European Union. Leave campaigners repeatedly cited membership of the alliance as a reason why, contrary to the arguments of the Remainers, national security would not be impaired by Brexit vote. Whatever the turmoil in the Government, the Opposition and British politics generally, that will remain true.

Another reason for the quiet prelude to next week’s summit is that the international media spotlight is almost bound to be elsewhere. Any hint of ferment, such as that which preceded the Bucharest summit in 2008 and the Cardiff summit two years ago, has been thoroughly displaced.