President Biden is in Europe this week. He's making stops in Belgium and in Poland in hopes

of keeping the Western Alliance united and showcasing American leadership. But it won't

be an easy task as Russia's invasion of Ukraine heads into its second month with no clear

end in sight. It remains unclear just how far Biden and US allies are prepared to go to punish

Russia and to strengthen Ukraine's defenses. The West has already issued broad sanctions against

Moscow and provided billions of dollars in military assistance to Kiev. So how much further will

the US and NATO allies go in support of Ukraine? And will Biden's trip be mostly symbolic?

Or will there be substantive next steps when he wraps up his time abroad? This is can he do

that? A podcast that explores the powers and limitations of American government in a time of

deep division. I'm Allison Michaels. I just checked into my hotel where some of the White House staff is

staying here in Brussels and it's buzzing with secret service agents, police. Tyler Pager is a White

House reporter for the Washington Post who's traveling alongside Biden and administration officials

in Europe this week. Being in Brussels is analogous in some ways to being in Washington. There's always

a lot of diplomats and politicians around here. But I can tell you when I checked in there was

chatter about the US president coming and where he was going to stay and what he was going to do.

So I think there is a lot of build up to this moment. Obviously on the European continent,

the war is raging and it's ongoing and there's expectations that refugees will continue to flow

into Western Europe and they will really see the impact in their day-to-day life of this war.

I don't think we're there quite yet at least in this part of Europe but we're heading to Poland

later this week and we will undoubtedly see the impact of this war up close.

What is Biden hoping to achieve this week? So Biden's here in Europe with really two goals in mind.

The broader goal here is to ensure that the West continues to stay extremely aligned in response

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