When Ukraine emerged from the corpse of the Soviet Union, a significant arsenal of Soviet-era nuclear weapons was left on its territory. The Clinton administration devoted much of its diplomatic energy to persuading Ukraine, along with Kazakhstan and Belarus, to return those weapons to Russia.
As the Irish news service RT脡 last week, the Ukrainians resisted American pressure to denuclearize: 鈥淭hey were afraid to give them up because they thought that鈥檚 the only thing that protected them from an expansionist Russia.鈥� But Americans, as Mr. Clinton鈥檚 secretary of state , 鈥渟tand tall. We see further than other countries into the future.鈥� And so the Clinton administration pushed another message on the Ukrainians: The rules-based international order would protect Ukraine鈥檚 future better than anything as anachronistic as nuclear weapons.