In June the Summit of the Americas will take place in Los Angeles. By then the world will likely be a very different place. Sharper lines will have been drawn between the US, its allies and Russia, as well as with Washington’s main strategic adversary, China.
The cause is the Ukraine, a country far distant from the Caribbean, where third parties are setting the stage for a future world that will look and be very different.
Whether President Putin decides to bear the cost of a limited but likely long lasting military intervention in its ‘near abroad’, in a nation he describes as being in “the same historical and spiritual space” as Russia, or alternatively manages to reach an accommodation with the US and a divided Europe, the outcome will be the same: the re-emergence of spheres of influence.