The war in Ukraine is solely the responsibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has shamefully ordered an attack on a nonthreatening neighbor.
But the exploding conflict is also a warning about how missteps in American foreign policy can unnecessarily escalate tensions in ways that make war more likely. Some of those decisions heightened the acute risk of conflict in Ukraine itself, while others undermined the post-war norms that are now at risk of being fully torched by Putin's invasion. Through hubris and misguided attempts at projecting American power around the globe, four successive presidential administrations helped create the conditions that led to Putin's violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.
