Putin’s actions in eastern Europe have focused attention on the role of NATO, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union beyond anything else in recent memory.

There has been a great deal of debate about how far these institutions can go, will go, must go. If we go too far, will we provoke a nuclear, chemical, or biological escalation that no one can comprehend? If we do too little, will that give Putin permission to go further and spread his attacks to actual member countries of NATO? And are the efforts taken so far going to be regarded as too much or too little anyway?

Now, as the Ukrainian forces are outperforming everyone’s expectations, the world still wonders how far Putin will go to achieve his aims or at least save face.

And while these tasks are specifically aimed at minimizing these types of events, it is much harder to find actual solutions that work.