WASHINGTON — No doubt the war in Ukraine, which has claimed more than 6,000 lives and internally displaced more than one million people, is a large-scale human tragedy. Yet President Vladimir Putin of Russia’s adventurism and President Obama’s restrained response are not, as some commentators have suggested, evidence that the world’s security architecture is collapsing.

Should the crisis in Ukraine remain in Ukraine, this entire episode would actually signal victory for the international order that the United States has underwritten since World War II.

Much of Europe is more united on security issues today than it has been in years. Germany is finding its feet as the Continent’s foreign policy leader. Although many European countries’ defense budgets fall short of their commitments to NATO, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, the Netherlands and Romania have announced that they will increase their defense spending. More needs to be done, but that Europe is taking its defense more seriously is undeniably a good thing for the United States.

In another notable victory for American leadership, just years after rallying support for an international sanctions regime against Iran over its nuclear program, Washington has repeated that diplomatic feat against Russia. It was partly at its behest that the European Union enacted firm sanctions against Moscow. And those, combined with plummeting world oil prices, have left the Russian economy in tatters.