Michael Allen, associate professor of political science co-authored a commentary in the March 3 edition of The Defense Post outlining United States policy options in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Menu of Foreign Policy: Sanctions, Cyberwar, and Troop Deployment in Ukraine examines the range of options the U.S. possesses to achieve foreign policy goals.
The authors state economic sanctions are often successful in the threat stage, as they can force a target state to back down through the fear of economic costs. However, these sanctions are noted to have a high failure rate when they are put into place.
Cyber strategies and capabilities, in contrast, are often kept secret until they need to be deployed, since sharing these tactics ahead of time would decrease their effectiveness.
While the U.S. has increased its military deployments to the allied NATO states in the region, President Biden has stated that the U.S. will not put American troops on the ground to defend Ukraine, decreasing the likelihood of war between the U.S. and Russia, the authors note.