Expanding the argument, Flynn suggested that the new threat of global terror required a fundamental shift in priorities that would position the United States and Russia less as competitors than as collaborators in a common fight. “[W]e have to begin to understand that this is not an East-West world, folks, [that it’s] actually more of a North-South world, and we have to decide—U.S., Europe, Russia and other, other countries, countries in South America, maybe, and even China and India, how do we want the world to be over the course of the next 10 years, 25 years, 50 years?” Flynn added. “[I] don’t believe for a second that we’re going to defeat the Islamic State in two years. This has been described as a 100-Year War.”

How many of these views Trump personally shares is unclear. He has said strikingly little about why he believes better relations with Putin would advantage the United States, other than to broadly suggest the two nations could work together more effectively against ISIS. Many analysts see Trump’s attraction to Putin as mostly a personal connection driven both by Trump’s admiration for his tough-guy style, and Putin’s careful flattery of the president-elect.

But Fontaine, the former McCain aide and CNAS president, said a tilt toward Putin would be compatible with two larger foreign-policy tendencies Trump has hinted at. One is an inclination to view “China as the bigger threat” to the United States both because of its aggressive posture in Asia and because it represents a much more formidable economic competitor than Russia.

Second, Fontaine noted, Trump at various points has suggested—particularly in his comments about Asia—that he is more comfortable trying to maintain global stability through regional “spheres of influence” led by locally dominant powers than through “one unified world order in which American power is the ultimate foundation.” Through that lens, Fontaine continued, Russia’s attempts to expand its reach in eastern Europe “may not be as concerning to you than if you are concerned that it is undermining the rules-based system of the world.”

So far, Fontaine said, this more benign assessment of Putin has very little support among elected officials in either party. “Almost everybody thinks if we can find some way to work with Russia on discrete issues, [then] sure [let’s pursue those opportunities],” he said. “But that there is no overarching deal, or friendly bond between the U.S. and this Russia that can be had either without compromising fundamental interests or principles, or seeing the agreement go up in smoke when Russia violates it.”

McCain offered the rallying cry for that competing view in his bristling opening statement at Thursday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Russian hacking and other cyber threats. “It should not surprise us that Vladimir Putin would think he could launch increasingly severe cyberattacks against our nation,” McCain insisted, “when he has paid little price for invading Ukraine, annexing Crimea, subverting democratic values and institutions across Europe, and of course, helping Bashar [al-]Assad slaughter civilians in Syria for more than a year with impunity.”