Bloomberg Businessweek quotes Atlantic Council VP and Brent Scowcroft Center Director Barry Pavel on how Russia’s aggresion in Eastern Europe has altered President Obama’s foreign policy strategy:
Now, said Barry Pavel, director of the Scowcroft Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington policy group: “When members of NATO feel threatened, are they going to send more forces to the Gulf or are they going to try to husband some of those forces for reassuring the Baltics, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, who are on Ukraine’s borders?”
The Russian crisis will “be a drain” diplomatically, he said, “and it might be more of a drain over the next few weeks depending on what happens in Ukraine.”
Europe’s interest in diplomacy with the U.S. on curbing nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, ending the Syrian civil war, resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and keeping Asia stable to protect the global economy will continue, Pavel said. “But I do think they’ll be distracted.”