Why the world is listening to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address

It takes months for a President and his team to write the State of the Union address. It is a primetime platform and a chance to cast the presidency in the very best light. Normally the focus is domestic. This year was going to be about jobs, the economy, Covid and inflation.

Now it will focus heavily on Ukraine, on the human catastrophe unfolding in the heart of the Europe. The President will offer his view of America as the leading defender against Russian aggression and will do so with the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States in the audience as an invited guest.

The man who, as senator, vice-president and president, has sold himself as a time-served foreign policy expert, will turn to history to address the future and the troubling state of the present.

“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression they cause more chaos,” he will tell Congress.

“They keep moving and the threats to American and the world keep rising.”

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His speech will acknowledge the need for unity, the need for diplomacy but it will also condemn Russia’s actions for the “premeditated and unprovoked war” begun by its leader.

“He thought the West and NATO wouldn’t respond, And he thought he could divide us here at home. Putin was wrong, we were ready.”

Biden’s critics will argue he had his chances to hold President Putin to account and failed. They may well argue he is failing now. This is his chance to defend and promote his actions.

This year is not just the President’s address to the nation and Congress. It is the President’s address to the world with a very clear message for Moscow.