There has been a clear pattern of pragmatic d… – Escalation Management in Ukraine: Assessing the U.S. Response to Russia’s Manipulation of Risk

July 22, 2025

There has been a clear pattern of pragmatic decision-making in the first year of the war. Biden early on ruled out NATO enforcement of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, despite brutal Russian attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and desperate pleas from Zelenskyy, because he judged the risk of direct engagement between NATO and Russian pilots to be too high.