The Obama Administration’s confrontational policy towards Russia over Ukraine is dangerously misguided on two counts. Not only is Ukraine of marginal geopolitical significance to the United States, but the White House badly needs Moscow’s cooperation on the far more salient issues of counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism, and counterbalancing a rising China.

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its backing of secessionist rebels in Eastern Ukraine have set the Kremlin on a collision course with the West. The United States and its European allies have angrily retaliated by imposing economic sanctions against Moscow and deploying additional NATO troops to Eastern Europe.

The Obama Administration has also signalled that its next step may be to send arms to the Kiev government. In turn, the Putin regime has even further raised the region’s temperature by flying Russian nuclear bombers into the airspace of the United Kingdom and other NATO states. From Washington’s vantage point, this frightening escalation of tensions between the world’s two most formidable nuclear powers is deeply misguided.

…Evan N. Resnick is an assistant professor and Coordinator of the United States Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.