In my latest piece at Medium, I argue that while Joe Biden is correct to avoid using military force to aid Ukraine, sanctions are not a viable alternative as they have little hope of changing Russia’s behavior in the immediate and short term.
I look at the history of sanctions and just how ineffective they are, and conclude that a third option must be developed. While that won’t help Ukraine now, it could prevent an autocratic strongman like Putin from contemplating such actions in the future.
I further argue that any such regime must be binding on all states. It must prevent a recurrence of the US invasion of Iraq just as surely as it does a recurrence of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.