With Europe in flames and the phrase “World War III” spoken without inviting ridicule in the context of Ukraine, it may seem odd to suggest that the grim conflict is part of something yet bigger.

It is, however, true. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revanchist attack on an independent nation that was once a satrapy of the Soviet empire fits precisely into a wider effort by the world’s allied tyrannies to destroy American global leadership and undermine liberal democracy everywhere.