Biden’s trip to Europe: between unity and escalation

One month after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden went to Europe seeking to maintain unity in the transatlantic response to the war, managing the difficult task of escalating without approaching the line that could trigger a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. It is a balancing act that the president has been able to manage thus far. However, there are evident risks in the strategy, as the trajectory of the crisis has shown over the past year.

The political discussion inside the United States has been fairly one-sided over the past month. Most of the positions in Washington range from arming Ukraine to arming Ukraine even more, with some discussion on how far to push economic measures to further isolate Vladimir Putin. There is little criticism of the US response on substance, with the exception of a few senators who have a history of highlighting hypocrisy in foreign policy, such as Rand Paul, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. There have also been predictable attempts by the Republican Party to use the war in Ukraine as part of a general campaign to paint Biden as weak and feckless. Meanwhile, some on the right are taking the opportunity to bring back the Hunter Biden laptop story – aided by accusations from Russia on alleged financing of biolabs – to harp on the president’s conflicts of interest while relitigating the 2020 election.

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