This is The Guardian.

We've spent the last couple of weeks talking about the impact Joe Biden, the U.S. and

U.S. politics is having on the war in Ukraine.

We saw that impact again just this week when the Pentagon America's Defense Department

blocked a transfer of fighter planes from Poland to Ukraine, a move that the Ukrainians

had been asking for but many others feared would see an escalation of the war.

Some say the reason this war is still going on at all is that even though the U.S. has

the largest military ever in history, it's just too scared to use it.

It won't dare do anything that might risk a nuclear confrontation with Vladimir Putin.

The Russian leader himself says it's America and it's NATO allies that provoked this

war by expanding NATO too close to Russia's borders.

So what exactly is the role of American power in this conflict and in today's world?

Does America do too much or not enough?

I'm Jonathan Friedland, columnist for The Guardian and this is Politics Weekly America.

My guest for this week has thought about the question of American power long and hard

and argues that if anything Vladimir Putin is given us a glimpse of what the world might be like

without America playing that leading role.

Dr. Shady Hamid is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, co-host of the podcast Wisdom of

Crowds and a contributing writer at The Atlantic where he's written a provocative new essay on this

whole issue. I started off by asking Shady Hamid, his thought on why Joe Biden isn't doing what

the Ukrainian president for Vladimir Zelensky is asking him to do. Shady Hamid, it's very good to

have you on the podcast. We're talking about American power. I think no one disputes that the United

...