JRL NEWSWATCH: “U.S. should revive Lend-Lease to contain Russia” – Atlantic Council/ Stephen Blank

March 3, 2020 JRL Russia List Europe, EU, JRL NewsBlog, Military, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“… Moscow’s hybrid war against the Western world continues unabated. … There are many advantages to a modern-day revival of the Lend-Lease concept. Firstly, it materially strengthens Ukraine by demonstrating growing U.S. support …. Secondly, this plan would help increase allied security and capabilities in threatened areas such as Romania in the Black Sea region and Poland in the north. Thirdly, a Lend-Lease approach would create incentives for U.S. allies in Central and Eastern Europe to invest in initiatives that would simultaneously foster economic growth, regional integration, and security cooperation. … Washington has just granted USD 1 billion to the Three Seas Initiative … building transportation infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe ….

A twenty-first-century interpretation of Lend-Lease would make effective use of existing resources … while … strengthening deterrence and security in the most directly threatened regions of Central and Eastern Europe. … [S]upporting increased military capacity and cooperation in the region, it would send a clear message to … Putin that his ongoing aggression will only serve to provoke exactly the outcomes he sought to prevent … Ukraine’s greater independence and further European integration. … to [help] persuade Moscow that it needs to negotiate a real end to the war and allow for the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Even if the Kremlin fails to grasp this fact, the Western world would nevertheless have taken significant practical steps towards containing Russian imperial ambitions ….”