“One of the root problems may be that Western publics started to take the prevalence of liberal norms and institutions for granted,” writes Ghia Nodia, professor of political science at Ilia State University and director of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development in Tbilisi, Georgia. “These publics need loud wake-up calls to understand that constant vigilance truly is the price of liberty, and that the liberal order requires effort and struggle, sometimes with the force of arms. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has become the most dramatic such call; the reaction to it from the Ukrainian people and Ukraine’s friends in the West gives ground for optimism.”