The war in Ukraine has united Russia and China, which has become a problem for the West

The Kremlin possesses enormous disruptive global power and is willing to take significant risks to advance its geopolitical agenda. Moreover, it has allies. Therefore, dealing with Russia will require a long-term strategy that echoes containment, as practiced by the United States during the Cold War, write a group of American political scientists in Foreign Affairs.

The war in Ukraine has united Moscow and Beijing more strongly than ever since the times of Stalin and Mao. Biden and his immediate successors will not be able to separate Beijing from Moscow as Nixon did in 1972; China and Russia are too closely linked and both see US global leadership as a threat. The war has also deepened relations between Russia and North Korea. Additionally, India, South Africa and other major regional powers consider the West’s call for moral struggle against Russia selfish and hypocritical, the authors honestly admit. For this reason, the United States should challenge Russia’s influence beyond Europe primarily through aid, investment and trade, rather than military intervention.

Efforts are being made to combat Russian influence in Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The hotspots of conflict are now not in Germany but on the western periphery of Russia: in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Therefore, the authors of the article propose different levels of integration into Western institutions for them. In Ukraine, Europe should take on at least 50 percent of the financing for military aid to Kyiv. This will free Washington’s hands in Asia, primarily in its confrontation with China, Foreign Affairs writes.