Anatol Lieven Is an Idiot.

Which is expected from Anglo-American dumbed down Ph.D in political pseudo-science and the guy who has absolutely zero background in modern world other than dropping quotes from people who described the world in times of dreadnoughts and ballistic tables at best, and operated on the very general idea of selsyn driven analogue computers and basic principles of internal combustion engines. This is in the basic case scenario. Now we have all these "humanities"-educated "strategists" running like a bunch of goats slated for the slaughter trying to make out what do they see in this complex reality and as the result we have this pseudo-scholastic BS in Soros-funded Quincy Institute:

Putin’s move on Donestk, Lugansk is illegal but falls short of new ‘invasion. The next steps are critical: we must hold threat of full scale sanctions and a Ukrainian military response, until Russia extends farther. 

They just don't learn. They are incapable of learning. Top-bottom. For Lieven, personally, learn the goddamn history of Russia of the 20th century before offering your ignorant opinion on the issues of mobilization and real economy before trying to make sense on the events of such a scale that the "professors" from your Cambridge College can not even wrap their pea-brains around it. Resign yourself to a simple fact that islanders (UK-and US) suck at real continental warfare and you know zilch about it in the 21st century (same is applied to real economy and R&D). Yet, they continue to bloviate. It is really nauseating reading sweeping generalizations on "strategy" from people who would not recognize the difference between uncertainty in getting a STD from a crack whore in London and uncertainty in targeting received from space based assets when sensory fused with platforms organic sensors. Yet, here we are, good ol' boys from "elite" colleges where they pretend to "study" trying to make a sense out of what they see, having no tools to grasp it. That is why his "reasoning" reads like this: 

Russia’s action has narrowed the space for diplomacy to resolve this crisis, but not yet destroyed it. As long as there is any hope of preventing a wider war, it is our duty to pursue it, both by the genuine and credible threat of massive economic sanctions, and by the genuine and sincere offer of reasonable compromise.

Sounds and reads as that of a totally detached from the reality teenager. Sad, really, seeing this demagogue (together with Rod Dreher from TAC among many others) having a tribune in yet another pseudo "realist" remuneration source in D.C. Andrew Bacevich should know better. Especially the fact that US "diplomacy" is a simulacrum.