Our Fear of Escalation in Ukraine Has Only Made It More Likely
Joe Biden’s lend-lease plan for Ukraine provides critical weapons and supplies. But deterring and defeating Putin will also require a new strategic vision.
Setting goals.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images EuropeThe democracies opposed to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine have been clear that, in Boris Johnson’s words, “Putin must fail.” But they haven’t defined failure. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss took a stab at it on Wednesday night, and it’s worth a closer look at what she said.
Her 2022 Mansion House speech, a set-piece event in the British political calendar, was headlined “the return of geopolitics.” She argued that winning the war in Ukraine is a “strategic imperative” that will require supplying the country with heavy weaponry, including tanks and airplanes, and ramping up arms production.