Russia is poised to invade Ukraine. And the United States and its Western allies are, once again, forced to reckon with Russian power.

Until recently, it was fashionable to minimize Russia as a great power. In 2014, after Russia seized Crimea, then-President Barack Obama referred to it as a “regional power that is threatening some of its neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness.” Two years before, during a 2012 U.S. presidential debate, Obama mocked GOP nominee Mitt Romney for exaggerating the threat posed by Russia. “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” he said pointedly. And Obama wasn’t alone in his cavalier attitude.