Zelensky Wags the Dog but Softly
Passport (SHAFR), Sep 2022: Too often agency (and blame) for the war in Ukraine has been presumed to lie predominantly with the greater powers. Liberals like Anne Applebaum point to President Vladimir Putin's autocratic and expansionist mission to restore a greater Russia as the precipitating reagent for the crisis, while realists like John Mearsheimer hold the Americans and Europeans responsible for encouraging Ukraine to challenge Russia by seeking membership in NATO.[i] In both cases (and both have a case), what has been underplayed is the agency of Ukraine. Taken for granted have been President Volodymyr Zelensky’s artful strategic manipulations to pull a wide community of actors into the regional conflict. His calls for military assistance have resembled what the political scientist Joseph Nye, Jr., termed the “soft powers” of persuasion
Unlike Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, however, today’s Western chiefs of state—Joseph Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz—have not emerged as charismatic leaders to front-face the military mission and the culture war against Russia. They have not pulled Ukraine into the Western sphere of influence. Indeed, in their ambivalence to confront Putin directly, they have not had to. They have been excused from spearheading this task, as the one-time actor has taken the lead role…