The US Has No Endgame in Ukraine
Putin’s disastrous gamble in Ukraine has left the West in a strong position to craft a peace that would underscore the futility of Russia’s aggression. But there are worrying signs that the Biden administration might be unwilling to accept peace on any terms.
A view of a destroyed residential building, which was shelled by Russians in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 31, 2022. (Stringer / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
It has been three months since Russian president Vladimir Putin shocked the world with his aggression against Ukraine, and Washington officials still seem to be unwilling to posit any clear endgame for what is now being openly acknowledged in the United States as a proxy war between the world’s two leading nuclear powers.
Amid a US political climate that is unique in the world in its rejection of diplomacy as a vehicle to resolve the conflict, longtime Washington policy hand Marcus Stanley, now advocacy director at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, has been one of the few prominent voices urging Washington to prepare the ground for an eventual negotiated peace.
Stanley spoke with Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic for an article published last week that examined the absence of a US diplomatic track in a war in which Washington has become deeply embroiled militarily.
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