The deteriorating situation in Ukraine and rising tensions between Russia and the United States threaten to bury U.S. President Barack Obama's floundering "pivot" toward Asia — the world's most vibrant (but also possibly its most combustible) continent. Obama's just-ended tour of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines will do little to rescue the pivot or put his regional foreign policy on a sound footing.
In fact, Russia's aggression in Ukraine is just the latest reason that the pivot — which has been rebranded as a "rebalancing" — has failed to gain traction.
A slew of other factors — including America's foreign-policy preoccupation with the Muslim world, Obama's reluctance to challenge an increasingly assertive China, declining U.S. defense outlays, and diminished U.S. leadership on the world stage — were already working against it.