Can we really say that the crisis in Ukraine is as important as meeting the challenge of ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, or Ebola, or the South China Sea?
An initial answer would be that our shifting attention is part of the problem, which Russia has consistently exploited to get what it wants, reports GHN based on CNN.
Russia maximized its deliveries of men and arms to East Ukraine in August and September to coincide with one peak of the crisis in Iraq. Appeals by the likes of former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov that "considering the surrounding threats, we have to find a way out of the Ukrainian mess as soon as possible" are unfortunately attractive to some, but are an invitation to ignore our own true interests.
The NATO summit in Wales in September didn't seem to think Ukraine was that important. It produced something resembling a plan for ISIS, and some palliatives for the next possible crisis in Eastern Europe by beefing up security in Poland and the Baltic States. But it did little to help Ukraine now. Ukrainian President Poroshenko's speech to Congress in September was interrupted by applause 40 times, but his barbed remark that Ukraine"cannot win a war with blankets" only produced $53 million in non-lethal aid.
ISIS is of course hugely important. The humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq involves over 10 million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The threat of jihadis returning home, especially to the likes of the UK, is rightly of paramount concern. So is the issue of why so many left the UK to fight in the first place. There is also a sense of responsibility for what happened after 2003 or 1991.
But, apart from the issue of militant recruitment and terrorist blowback within Europe, this is not an issue about Europe's neighborhood.
Ukraine, on the other hand, is both the literal and metaphorical frontier of Europe. And Russia's entire modus operandi, of which its current actions in Ukraine are only the most visible part, is not only a challenge to the European order, but a challenge that is dangerously exploiting the many existing problems within the EU.