Obama branded as leader of the 'West'

His first instinct was to pivot to Asia, then Barack Obama was dragged back into the Middle East: now he must play a role born in the Cold War -- leader of the "West."
President Vladimir Putin's blunt show of Russian power by sending troops into Crimea, presents the US president with challenges to his personal and political credibility.
NATO is also in the spotlight, suddenly facing a Kremlin-engineered threat close to its own borders after years retooling its mission to combat terrorism and more than a decade fighting in Afghanistan.
As leader of the alliance's most powerful member and effective guarantor of a weakened Europe's security, it falls to Obama to lead the West's response.
It is a role that was familiar to two generations of US presidents, but one that fell out of fashion with the eclipse of the Soviet Union.
"President Obama is facing the most difficult international crisis of his presidency," said Nicholas Burns, former US ambassador to NATO.
The Ukraine crisis follows Syria's torment, the Libyan war and the souring of the Arab Spring as the latest disruption to Obama's best laid foreign policy plans.
He had set out to remold the US role in the world by resetting testy US relations with Russia, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, waging a drone campaign against Al-Qaeda and rebalancing US power to emerging Asia.
But now he must deal with what top aides describe as a 19th Century style crisis -- a land grab in Europe.