Now that we are distracted by the war against the Islamic State, what should the U.S. do in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine — in a way that deters future aggression and encourages regional peace?
The Obama administration and NATO have made some modest progress in reacting to Putin’s aggression. They have imposed some sanctions and created a 4,000 troop “rapid reaction force” that would rush to the rescue in the event of new Russian aggression elsewhere. In the mind of of Putin and his strategists, however, these actions are not serious. As the Russians measure the “correlation of forces,” the Obama/NATO actions send a signal of weakness, not strength. They will not deter.