Our cover looks ahead to next week’s talks between Russia, America and NATO, to be held even as 100,000 Russian troops are poised to invade Ukraine. At stake is the future of a country that increasingly sees itself as part of the West, as well as Amer­ica’s role as the anchor of European security. As the crisis comes to a head, the risk of miscalculation is growing. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has already issued his demands: he wants the alliance to forswear all further expansion—everywhere, and not just in Ukraine and Georgia, two former Soviet states. He wants America to stop protecting its allies with tactical nuclear weapons and short- and medium-range missiles. And Russia wants, in effect, a veto over troop deployments and exercises in the eastern parts of NATO territory and over military co-operation with all former Soviet countries. This is so extravagant that it may really be an ultimatum drafted in order to be rejected, creating a pretext for another invasion of Ukraine. If Mr Putin is indeed bent on going to war, nothing can stop him. However, robust diplomacy could yet give him pause and help arrest the long decay of relations between Russia and the West. And even if talks fail, NATO could emerge stronger, more united and clearer about the threat it faces.