As the war in Ukraine grinds into its fourth year, the world is no longer operating under the familiar rules of Cold War blocs or post–Cold War triumphalism. New alignments—Russia’s deepening ties with North Korea and Iran—signal a decisive shift away from ideology toward realism. States today are guided less by inherited loyalties and more by immediate concerns of survival, leverage, and influence.

Whereas, the United States, under President Trump, has chosen prudence over entanglement. Rather than allowing America to be drawn into another open-ended conflict, the administration has emphasized negotiation from a position of strength. This posture has drawn otherwise unreachable adversaries into direct talks and sought to address the underlying drivers of conflict rather than merely containing their symptoms. It is a strategy rooted not in nostalgia, but in hard-headed calculation.

History reminds us that pragmatic cooperation can achieve what ideology alone cannot. The Soviet Union’s immense sacrifices on the Eastern Front broke the spine of Nazi Germany, easing the burden on U.S. and Allied forces in Western Europe. That wartime partnership between........

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