e.g.: "If we don't fix our educational system, we have no hope of ... "
"If we don't deal with Putin, we have no hope of ... "
It may well be that one of these problems is the primary mover, overwhelmingly more important than the others, the *cause* of the others, or more solvable,
But I suspect not. Putin isn't an independent problem. As @NTenzer has argued elsewhere, he "takes advantage of the irresolution and pusillanimity of the West."