I am starting to get what I think is Biden's strategy, and why he is not acting very strongly on Russia and Iran, but on China.
1. Biden wants for there to be dead Ukrainians so that Europeans increase their defense spending out of fear, and increase readiness.
2. Biden is horse-trading, hey Europe we will defend you from Russia, and to the Saudis & Israelis from the Iranians, in exchange, Saudi Arabia raises production of oil to decrease the price of Brent crude in incase of war, and Europe helps with China.
3. He really wants to deescalate, and appease Russia in exchange he removes them from the China-Russia alliance, he loses Europe and Ukraine as a result.
4. A mixture of 1, and 2
More clues to Biden's strategic thinking...
In the 1970s, Mr. Biden opposed giving aid to the South Vietnamese government in its war against the North. Congress's cut-off of funds contributed to the fall of an American ally, helped communism advance, and led to mass death throughout the region. Mr. Biden also advocated defense cuts so massive that both Edmund Muskie and Walter Mondale, both leading liberal Democrats at the time, opposed them.
www.wsj.com
In the early 1980s, the U.S. was engaged in a debate over funding the Contras, a group of Nicaraguan freedom fighters attempting to overthrow the Communist regime of Daniel Ortega. Mr. Biden was a leading opponent of President Ronald Reagan's efforts to fund the Contras. He also opposed Reagan's efforts to send military assistance to the pro-American government in El Salvador, which at the time was battling the FMLN, a Soviet-supported Marxist group.
The most telling part of Biden...
Throughout his career, Mr. Biden has consistently opposed modernization of our strategic nuclear forces. He was a fierce opponent of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Mr. Biden voted against funding SDI, saying, "The president's continued adherence to [SDI] constitutes one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft." Mr. Biden has remained a consistent critic of missile defense and even opposed the U.S. dropping out of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty after the collapse of the Soviet Union (which was the co-signatory to the ABM Treaty) and the end of the Cold War
So he believes in nuclear deterrence, he's likely a defensive realist like Obama.