We may not be living in pre-war years — as the period of the Munich Agreement was, and sometimes still is, called — but it feels that way. West Europeans accustomed to decades of peace under a protective American military umbrella find themselves watching the third year of a war on their eastern flank, caused by Russia’s attempt to conquer Ukraine. Both countries are part of Europe by history and geography. Russia officially recognized its neighbor’s legal sovereignty in 1991.
