President Emmanuel Macron of France sparked the ire of his NATO allies and Russian jokes about Napoleon on Monday. He did so via his pledge that, “We will do everything so that Russia cannot win this war [in Ukraine]. We should not exclude that there might be a need for security that then justifies some elements of [troop] deployment.”

Considering that a deployment of Western forces into active combat operations in Ukraine would likely precipitate World War III, Macron’s comments have generated understandable attention. That said, I suspect Macron is really thinking only about extreme contingencies here.