NATO has found a renewed sense of purpose in the face of Russian aggression. But as Jeremy Shapiro notes, the outbreak of war in Ukraine is “a failure in and of itself,” since “NATO exists above all to deter war in the region.” He traces other consequences of the failures of both NATO and the Biden administration, particularly the ways in which they exacerbate the threat that China poses to the West.
Russia’s war has done . . . grievous damage to the Biden administration’s overarching foreign-policy framework. President Joe Biden had hoped to put Russia policy on a “stable and predictable” footing—by which he meant he wanted to focus on China. Recognizing that the China challenge required nearly the full measure of U.S. resources, the administration had intended to use its political capital with European allies to get them on board with its Indo-Pacific policy.
That policy has now nearly completely collapsed, but China and the threat that it poses has not disappeared. It may seem that NATO is newly relevant as a deterrent to Russia—its original purpose—but its response cannot be simply be to return to its cold-war posture. The world has moved on even if Russia has not. Despite the war in Ukraine, China is still America’s—and thus NATO’s—most pressing problem.
Read more on Politico: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/27/us-biden-china-russia-00012029