For much of his first year in office, Joe Biden’s foreign policy has focused on the US’s increasingly rancorous competition with Beijing — so much so that critics have accused the president of allowing China to blind his team from other simmering international crises, such as Afghanistan and Iran.
Vladimir Putin, however, has made sure he will not be among the ignored. By amassing tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border, the Russian president has forced the White House into what experts in the region believe is a scramble to formulate a policy on the fly.
“This is becoming the worst crisis in Europe since the end of the Cold War,” said Andrew Lohsen, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.