What to Watch as Obama Heads to Estonia, NATO Summit
Sep 2, 2014 8:56am
(Photo Credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
Can the Obama Doctrine neutralize the Putin Doctrine? Can it quash the terror threat from radical Islamic extremism?
The answers may well depend on President Obamas trip this week to Russia-bordering Estonia and a summit of NATO allies in Wales, perhaps the groups most consequential meeting since the Cold War.
Obama will arrive in Europe Wednesday determined to show that coalition-building and multilateral diplomacy is the best weapon against imminent security threats from a common enemy. So far, the approach has done little to deter Russian incursions into Ukraine, or stunt the rise of Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
What we are seeing is the old order not working, but the new order not being born yet, Obama told donors at a private fundraiser Friday in New York. And it is a rocky road through that process, and a dangerous time through that process.
A rocky and dangerous test, as a defiant Russian President Vladimir Putin asserts a right to defend ethnic Russians wherever they are and ISIS militants vow a fight to extend their caliphate across the globe.
As the world watches Obamas huddle with NATO allies, here are four things to look out for:
1. TOUGH TALK FOR PUTIN: DONT MESS WITH US
Obama kicks off his three-day European swing with a stop on Putins doorstep in Tallinn, Estonia, a former Soviet Union country and NATO member unnerved by Russias push into Ukraine. Hell also meet with the presidents of neighboring Latvia and Lithuania.
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What to Watch as Obama Heads to Estonia, NATO Summit