The Case for Ramping Up Military Support for Ukraine
Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander for NATO, says policymakers are falling for Putin’s nuclear rhetoric.
There’s a growing debate among Western policymakers and politicians about the choices they face when it comes to dealing with Russia’s war in Ukraine. In year two of the war, the options for Washington and its partners can be distilled into three broad categories. First, to end the policy of incrementally giving Ukraine more military aid and to just go all in right away. Such a policy, which argues that a protracted conflict would be too damaging, would overwhelm Moscow, end Kyiv’s misery, and teach other would-be aggressors a tough lesson. The second category tends to include a wait-and-watch strategy along the lines of the status quo: to react nimbly to the ebb and flow of war and to be cautious about the threats of escalation, especially when it comes to the possibility of Russia using a nuclear weapon in response to a battlefield setback. Finally, there’s a strategy on the other end of the spectrum, most recently proposed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, which calls for stepping away from Europe and focusing instead on China as a rival and potential threat.
Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy. Twitter: @RaviReports
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