Biden playing proactive role in handling Ukraine crisis: Report

Having learnt lessons from the Afghanistan fiasco, US President Joe Biden is implementing an inclusive approach along with playing a proactive role in handling the Ukraine crisis.

Expert Jim Cook believes that the fresh approach would produce a foreign policy success for Biden and the West, while delivering a blow to autocratic states that violate international rules and norms.

Whereas Putin's overreach in Ukraine is bringing NATO closer together and encouraging traditionally "neutral" countries such as Finland to join the alliance,as noted by National Interest magazine.

US administration under President Joe Biden has come to terms with the situation in Ukraine with recent lessons learned from Afghanistan.

While diplomacy continues, the prospect of conflict seems more likely than not. Further complicating matters, Biden carries the stigma of "strategic failure" from the botched withdrawal that ended the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan as noted by National Interest magazine.

The Afghanistan debacle signaled weakness to US partners, competitors, and adversaries alike. Consequently, the desire to avoid another international catastrophe is influencing the Biden administration's response to the Ukraine crisis.

Meanwhile, this is a remarkable turn of events for someone who campaigned on his extensive foreign policy experience. Upon assuming office, Biden declared that "America is back" and pledged to "repair our alliances" to meet the challenge of strategic competition from China and Russia, writes Jim Cook for the National Interest.

Unfortunately, US President Joe Biden's ambitions (and credibility) took a big hit in the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal that began a precipitous decline in public approval which remains underwater today.

Meanwhile, these political headwinds led members of his own political party to voice concerns that the lack of "easy options" to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine could make Biden appear weak.

At the same time, critics such as House Representative Mike Turner from Republican Congress argued that the Afghanistan withdrawal "shows that this administration has a broken foreign policy and has raised questions about its commitment to its allies.

" Nevertheless, there is bipartisan support for Ukraine on Capitol Hill as demonstrated by a delegation of U.S. senators that recently traveled to Kiev in a "show of solidarity" against Russian aggression.

Meanwhile, there is a remarkable turn of events for someone who campaigned on his extensive foreign policy experience. Upon assuming office, Biden declared that "America is back" and pledged to "repair our alliances" to meet the challenge of strategic competition from China and Russia. Unfortunately, his ambitions (and credibility) took a big hit in the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal that began a precipitous decline in public approval which remains underwater today, writes Jim Cook for the National Interest.

These political headwinds led members of his own political party to voice concerns that the lack of "easy options" to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine could make Biden appear weak.

Given the painful lessons from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden is setting expectations by treating the Ukraine situation as a full-scale crisis.

The administration is taking (and leading) a more proactive approach with stark warnings that a Russian military invasion of Ukraine would be the largest since World War II and "would change the world." Moreover, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said such an attack would be "horrific" with a "significant amount of casualties, as analyzed by National Interest.

The Biden administration is applying some of the lessons learned from the Afghanistan experience by taking a more proactive and inclusive approach towards the Ukraine crisis.

The risk, of course, is the president's zeal to reestablish U.S. credibility will manifest in bellicose words and actions that (unintentionally) elevate tensions with Russia and increase the possibility of a strategic miscalculation that leads to armed conflict, as noted by National Interest.

( With inputs from ANI )

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