The question of Ukraine’s membership will be top of the agenda at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Lithuania this week. On one side of the debate will be those who argue that only the alliance’s ironclad guarantees can prevent a future recurrence of Russia’s savage aggression. On the other will be those who warn that President Vladimir Putin will never stop fighting if he believes Ukraine will join NATO the next day.
But the details of the debate aside, just ponder the fact that Ukrainians are fighting and dying to join the West — and what that says about the differences between the great powers clashing for influence today. Russia and China are trying, sometimes violently, to pull smaller states into their orbits. America often has its hands full keeping them out.
