[Rajoo]

In world’s greatest turmoil since the 1940s, Biden channels Truman

I’ve lived through two major geopolitical shifts in my lifetime: the end of the Cold War, which ushered in America’s “unipolar moment,” and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which ushered in the war on terrorism.
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Now, we are experiencing another turning point – what the Germans call a Zeitenwende — that might be even more unsettling. The new world disorder has been brought about primarily by the Russian invasion of Ukraine but also by other factors, including the rise of China, Iran’s nuclear program (which has now produced enough fissile material to build a bomb), North Korea’s out-of-control nuclear and missile programs (more missile tests in 2022 than in any previous year), the decline of globalization, and the rise of isolationist and protectionist sentiment in the United States. We are struggling to define the post-Ukraine war world even as the war itself rages on. The closest parallel I can think of was the struggle to define the post-World War II world in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

That would be a monumental challenge for any president. But Joe Biden, for all his faults and frailties, is rising to the task in a manner reminiscent of Truman, another president who was underestimated. Many details differ, of course. But it is striking just how much Biden’s general approach echoes that of Truman, and his successor Dwight D. Eisenhower, who responded to a world in crisis reminiscent of our own by building and maintaining alliances with like-minded countries to contain authoritarian aggressors without risking World War III.

Biden has done a particularly impressive job of marshaling an international coalition to sanction Russia and support Ukraine — and keeping that coalition united in the face of Putin’s attempts to use Russian energy as an economic weapon to send Europe and the United States into a recession. Biden has wisely eschewed provocative proposals, such as imposing a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine, while continuing to provide the Ukrainians with (most of) the weapons they need to defend themselves. Like Truman, he is finding a middle path of avoiding a direct superpower conflict while containing the Kremlin’s expansionism. He may soon have to confront — as Truman and then Eisenhower did in Korea — the difficult issue of how to end a war where a U.S. ally might not be able to win a complete victory. (Meaning, in this case, a return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders.)

For the record, I wrote Biden in as my choice for President in 2016.
I sincerely hope that President Biden's tenure in the WH will considered one of the finest in the modern era.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...t-ukraine-war/