That the breakup of the Soviet Union did deprive the US-led West of ‘the enemy’ is a fact. However, that ‘enemy’ was a highly responsible country whose approach to the world affairs was strongly characterized by a global ideology, however flawed and ‘increasingly irrelevant’.

Now the US has to deal with Russia, a successor state to the Soviet Union, which has been ruled for over two decades by Vladimir Putin.That in Ukraine, Russia has not gotten a quick victory on the battlefield is a fact. It is also a fact that the Western alliance has not risen to the challenge as yet mainly because of the fact that Putin can become more menacing and dangerous than Josef Stalin any moment now.

Javed Bashir (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022