America tries to keep overseas threats from developing to the point of threatening America at home.
This Geopolitical Futures essay summarizes America's strategy nicely:
America’s goal in Ukraine, then, is to deny Russia the strategic depth it wants in order to limit the Russian threat to Europe. With China, its goal is to retain American strategic depth in order to prevent China from threatening the U.S. or obtaining global reach.
The issues are similar in principle, but the stakes for the United States are not. For Washington, the China question is much more important than the Russia question. A Russian victory in Ukraine would redraw unofficial boundaries and increase risks. A Chinese success would create a more global power that challenges the U.S. and its allies around the world.
So we try to keep Russia as far east as possible where it can't harness the resources of Europe. And we try to keep China penned inside the first island chain by supporting allies there, preventing China from organizing the resources of the western Pacific.
While the China threat is more pressing, Europe has the power to blunt Russia, as long as America is there in NATO to knit together the European military forces scattered across the continent.
I'll add that American leadership in NATO prevents a second threat from arising in Europe--the European Union. The EU is a proto-imperial state that seeks to strip away the prefix.
And to achieve those goals America needs a quiet home field.
Do read all of the GF piece. It goes into Chinese and Russian needs regarding America that are interesting:
China needs to reach an understanding with the United States. Russia does not have that need. The U.S. is flexible.
In theory, America can throttle China's seaborne trade. But America is clearly fine with China prospering within the Western system. And if America was truly a military threat to Russia, Russia would need an understanding, too.
NOTE: Winter War of 2022 updates continue here.
