John Harwood writes:

Fiona Hill doesn’t know whether President Joe Biden can lead Western allies to ward off Russia’s threat to Ukraine. But unlike his predecessor, he’s trying.

Hill has a special vantage point on this slow-rolling crisis that US officials say could bring war in Europe at any moment. As a White House national security aide, she advised then-President Donald Trump on Russia and Ukraine — and became a star witness in impeachment proceedings that resulted from his conduct.

Now, outside the government as a Brookings Institution senior fellow, she’s among the Russia specialists Biden has consulted as he revives foreign policy priorities shared by every president since World War II except Trump.

After Trump derided and weakened the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Biden has rallied NATO on Ukraine’s behalf.

After Trump pressured Russia’s beleaguered neighbor for his personal benefit, Biden has steeled Americans for shared sacrifice in defense of Ukraine’s right of self-determination.

After Trump deferred to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the US government’s own intelligence agencies, Biden has deployed those agencies’ tradecraft in a multi-pronged transatlantic effort to deter Russian aggression.

“You couldn’t get a sharper contrast,” Hill observed in an interview. [Continue reading…]