America Needs a Realistic Ukraine Debate

Abstract

A healthy democracy ought to be able to develop and debate its national-security options honestly, openly and vigorously. This has not been the case when it comes to the United States’ policy on Ukraine. The American debate is instead polarised between supporting Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes’ and withdrawing support altogether. To view the war in such binary terms is not good for the United States. Nor is it good for Ukraine. There is obviously a strategic logic to punishing the Kremlin for its aggression, and we can continue to hope that Ukraine emerges from this war as a democracy with a bright European future. On the current course, however, Americans are in for a very long and very costly war over a relatively small amount of territory of limited strategic relevance to the United States. Unless US policymakers can arrive at a constructively pragmatic realism, disaffected voters could revolt in a manner that exacerbates America’s existing domestic political fractures.

Key words:

• Bucha
• imperial aggression
• Iraq War
• isolationism
• Joe Biden
• Kharkiv
• Kremlin
• Kyiv
• liberal world order
• realism
• Russia
• Ukraine
• Vladimir Putin
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Notes

1 White House, ‘State of the Union Address’, 1 March 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2022/.

2 ‘Defeating Putin Will Require Larger U.S. Commitments – and Risks’, Washington Post, 30 April 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/30/defeating-vladimit-putin-ukraine-war-requires-larger-risks/.

3 See, for example, Alina Polyakova and John Herbst, ‘Ukraine Can Win: The Case Against Compromise’, Foreign Affairs, 22 April 2022, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-04-22/ukraine-can-win.

4 See, for instance, Eliot A. Cohen, ‘Don’t Let Up Now’, Atlantic, 28 March 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/west-strategy-against-russia-ukraine-war/629387/.

5 See ibid.

6 See, for instance, ‘The Bucha Massacre Marks Grim Turning Point in Russia’s War’, Washington Post, 4 April 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/04/ukraine-bucha-massacre-forceful-response/.

7 Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff), post to X, 1 May 2022, https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1520928506573688834.

8 Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi), post to X, 1 May 2022, https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1520672718823297032.

9 See Christopher S. Chivvis, ‘The Humility of Restraint: Niebuhr’s Insights for a More Grounded Twentyfirst-century American Foreign Policy’, Working Paper, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 2021, https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Chivvis_Niebuhr_v2.pdf.

10 See Ivan Krastev, ‘Why Are American Liberals So Afraid of Russia?’, New York Times, 16 August 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/opinion/american-liberals-vladimir-putin-russia.html.

11 See Hillary Rodham Clinton and Dan Schwerin, ‘A State of Emergency for Democracy’, Atlantic, 25 February 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/republicans-ukraine-putin-xi-trump-democracy/622898/.

12 White House, ‘Remarks by President Biden on Continued Support for Ukraine’, 25 January 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/01/25/remarks-by-president-biden-on-continued-support-for-ukraine/.

13 Senator Roger Wicker, ‘Wicker Pushes Military Aid for Ukraine’, 2 May 2022, https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2022/5/wicker-pushes-military-aid-for-ukraine.

14 See, for example, Jim Risch, ‘Guest Opinion: Why Ukraine Matters’, Idaho Press, 20 March 2022, https://www.idahopress.com/opinion/guest_opinions/guest-opinion-why-ukraine-matters/article_375378da-173e-5d22-8748-219758a5fee7.html.

15 See Dina Smeltz, Craig Kafura and Emily Sullivan, ‘Growing US Divide on How Long to Support Ukraine’, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 5 December 2022, https://globalaffairs.org/research/public-opinion-survey/growing-us-divide-how-long-support-ukraine.

16 Quoted in Farnoush Amiri and Kevin Freking, ‘McCarthy: No “Blank Check” for Ukraine if GOP Wins Majority’, AP, 18 October 2022, https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-donald-trump-humanitarian-assistance-congress-c47a255738cd13576aa4d238ec076f4a.

17 Quoted in David Leonhardt, ‘The G.O.P.’s “Putin Wing”’, New York Times, 7 April 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/briefing/republican-party-putin-wing.html.

18 See Ross Douthat, ‘Can the Right Escape Racism?’, New York Times, 10 September 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/opinion/racism-republicans-trump.html.

19 J.D. Vance (@JDVance1), post to X, 5 April 2022, https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1511311385543815180.

20 See Congressional Progressive Caucus, ‘Congressional Progressive Caucus Leaders Reps. Jayapal and Lee Call for Diplomatic Solution to Crisis in Ukraine’, 26 January 2022, https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=DC95B5E6-BC94-4DDC-812B-68AE063CC787; and Ilhan Omar, ‘Rep. Omar’s Statement on Proposed Ukraine Defense Bill’, 2 February 2022, https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-omars-state-ment-proposed-ukraine-defense-bill.

21 Ayanna Pressley, ‘Rep. Pressley’s Statement on Ukraine Votes’, 10 March 2022, https://pressley.house.gov/2022/03/10/rep-pressley-s-state-ment-ukraine-votes/.

22 See Darragh Roche, ‘Why Cori Bush and Ilhan Omar Joined Republicans in Voting Against Russia Oil Ban’, Newsweek, 10 March 2022, https://www.newsweek.com/vote-against-russian-oil-ban-republicans-cori-bush-ilhan-omar-1686655.

23 See Matthew Duss, ‘Why Ukraine Matters for the Left’, New Republic, 1 June 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/166649/ukraine-matters-american-progressives.

24 Jack Auchincloss (@JakeAuch), post to X, 24 October 2022, https://twitter.com/JakeAuch/status/1584727936816803842.

25 See, for instance, Yasmeen Abutaleb, ‘Liberals Urge Biden to Rethink Ukraine Strategy’, Washington Post, 24 October 2022 (updated 25 October 2022), https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/24/biden-ukraine-liberals.

26 See, for example, Jamie Raskin, ‘Raskin Restates the Fundamental Importance of the Ukrainian Struggle for National Sovereignty, Democracy and Freedom’, 25 October 2022, https://raskin.house.gov/press-releases?ID=C6AAEAAD-548C-444A-85AB-A77AB7FFAAE6.

27 Richard Haass, ‘The Age of America First: Washington’s Flawed New Foreign Policy Consensus’, Foreign Affairs, 29 September 2021, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-09-29/biden-trump-age-america-first.

28 J.D. Vance, ‘Trump’s Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars’, Wall Street Journal, 31 January 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-best-foreign-policy-not-starting-any-wars-ukraine-russia-war-rocket-nuclear-power-weapons-defense-11675186959.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher S. Chivvis

Christopher S. Chivvis is the director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and recently served as national intelligence officer for Europe in the US National Intelligence Council.