Evidently, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2009 gift of a “reset” button given to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has done little to ease tensions between the two nations. The gesture was meant to symbolize a step in a new direction for improved relations between Russia and the U.S. and its NATO allies following Russia’s invasion of Georgia the year prior. That sets the stage for the latest NATO summit in Warsaw — an interesting setting in and of itself for a NATO gathering.

Increasingly, it appears that the next U.S. president will need to hit that “reset button” again. With Russia continuing its aggressive revanchist policy seen in its annexing of Crimea and its hostile dealings with Ukraine, it has become clear that current U.S. policy is not working. As many eastern European NATO countries feel the very real threat of Russian aggression, Barack Obama has been content to take a back seat offering little in the way of substantive policy assurances. Much like the putting of his head in the sand over the rise of ISIL the “JV team,” Obama’s toothless response toward Vladimir Putin has only encouraged Russia’s aggression.

Meanwhile, Obama seems more preoccupied with fundamentally transforming the U.S. military by ordering the Pentagon to repeal its long-standing exclusion of transgendered soldiers. And Secretary of State John Kerry elected to skip the pivotal NATO meeting this past Saturday evening in order to see the Broadway musical, “Hamilton.” Is it any wonder that our NATO allies are wringing their collective hands as they see the growing threat of Putin’s Russia?