“By and large, the kinds of actions Biden and his team are taking or are threatening to take do not meet this moment very well, whether we’re talking about the challenges from Russia or those posed by China,” says Simon Miles, a Russia expert and assistant professor of Slavic and Eurasian studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. President Joe Biden has warned Russia's Vladimir Putin that the U.S. could impose new sanctions if Russia takes further military action against Ukraine. President Biden taking any military response to Russia off the table was a “relief” to most Europeans, Dr. Biscop says, since any big-power military confrontation would come at Europe’s expense.