US President Joe Biden’s approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a qualified success. Under his leadership, the United States helped to ensure that Kyiv did not fall to Russia during the early stages of the war while also avoiding a catastrophic horizontal or vertical escalation of the conflict. These are non-trivial successes for which the president and his team of advisers deserve credit. However, Biden has fallen short when it comes to laying down markers for the post-war settlement in Europe. American leadership will be necessary to construct a stable security order once the current war is over, yet the United States under Biden has failed to articulate what such an arrangement should look like. The US should adopt a policy of retrenchment and offshore balancing toward Europe, with the European members of NATO taking primary responsibility for deterring future Russian aggression.
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