I think I’ve finally gotten a fix on why Zelenskyy and Ukraine are so insistent that America step in to expel Russia from the conquered regions. It’s because Zelenskyy and other foreign leaders mistakenly believe the United States is still operating under a Wilsonian worldview. That’s just not the case.

We’re no longer in the “spread and defend democracy around the world at any and all costs” business.

We haven’t been in the business for close to a decade now.

This insight is based upon just how many EU and Ukrainian talking heads repeat the assertion “Ukraine is a free democracy and totalitarian Russia invaded our free democracy.” And they offer this assertion as the reason America is morally obligated to intervene on behalf of Ukraine, not just in military aid but also in public condemnation of Putin and Russia.

This misinterpretation of American diplomatic intent and objective is creating great frustration and confusion for the international community as to why we haven’t done so yet. America is being accused of siding with Russia because we won’t fully side with Ukraine. That’s an easy error to construe because for nearly a century American foreign policy was rigidly principled in Wilsonian doctrine.

The international community hasn’t been paying close enough attention that we’ve been purposely distancing ourselves from the ideological bottleneck of “Democracy for All” expansionism. How has that worked out for us? Not great. Cultural imperialism is so 2000s. And it’s exhausting in every sense of the word exhausting.

America’s national interests definitely include curtailing Russian and Chinese expansion (mostly Chinese). Severing the increasingly close alliance of Russia and China is in our national interest. And a strong, stable Europe is also in our national interest. All of these considerstions direct our foreign policy. Naturally, our objectives and policies will intersect with and diverge from even our allies.

American diplomatic pragmatism might seem untoward to those who haven’t kept up with America’s evolving worldview. We’re simply not in the business of riding to the rescue of any country identifying as a democracy. We now weigh our involvement independent of this ideological cul de sac. And I think that’s at the core of Zelenskyy’s frustration and confusion, as well as the discomfort of our NATO allies.