Thank you for this great article. Sadly, American presidents are elected on domestic policy not international. We make a lousy world power. Maybe that is good.

Sadly the further you are from the Ukrainian border the less you spend on defense. Canada, Portugal and Spain adds the least to NATO. The lion share from the US (protected by an ocean) is threatening to cut back. Border countries are either militarizing against Russia or aligning with it. European defense spending is classically following a policy of “me first” then Ukraine but the long dormant defense industry smells the over $1T new money in defense spending. Russia has shot over 10 million 155m artillery shells at Ukraine who has responded with 2 million shot to date leading to a worldwide shortage of 155m shells. The world wasn’t prepared for a WW1 style trench style static war.

This will be a tough year.