An article in The Economist expresses concern about four world leaders not because of their individual activites, but because there is evidence that they are coordinating their efforts.
Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, was unusually blunt on a recent visit to Europe: “One of the reasons that [Vladimir] Putin is able to continue this aggression is because of the provision of support from the People’s Republic of China,” he said. China was, he added, “the biggest supplier of machine tools, the biggest supplier of microelectronics, all of which are helping Russia sustain its defence industrial base”. American officials are reluctant to discuss details of what they think Russia is giving its friends, but Kurt Campbell, deputy secretary of state, recently said Russia has provided China with submarine, missile and other military technology. Separately, America says that Iran has been busy sending Russia hundreds of short-range ballistic missiles.These revelations are examples of the growing military-industrial ties between China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. “We’re almost back to the axis of evil”, says Admiral John Aquilino, the recently-departed head of America’s Indo-Pacific Command, referring to the term applied by George W. Bush, a former president, to Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Others draw parallels with the Axis forces of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and fascist Italy, with worrying conclusions. “Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea…have now been co-operating for a longer time, and in more ways, than…any of the future Axis countries of the 1930s,” warns Philip Zelikow, in the Texas National Security Review, a military and security journal.The members of this new quartet of chaos—whose ideologies range from Islamism to hardline communism—are riven by distrust, and they have very different visions of the world. Yet they are united by a shared hatred of the American-led order, and are keen to deepen their economic and military-industrial links. Their relationships amount to a kind of “strategic transactionalism,” says an American administration official. That is, the four regimes share a systematic intent to conduct bilateral deals that are in each participant’s narrow self-interest, and sometimes in the collective interest too.
The article continues at The Economist. It's not a fun read.
We have NATO. And we think it's somehow unfair that our enemies collaborate? What else are they going to do?
ReplyDeleteExactly, it's like the expectation that the SEC stops insider trading.
DeleteI'm highly dubious that it is as true at country level, but you can judge what a /person/ is like by the people who like and hate them. And if these were the four who most hated you, you're probably doing something right. I don't have a high opinion of many Western states, but by comparison to the opposition, eh, maybe they really aren't terrible after all. Of these four, I have the highest opinion of Iran.
ReplyDeleteThey are all afraid of losing control. And are secretly not following their own directives.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Maxwell Smart who said there was money to be made in the churn of chaos.
DeleteAll these gangs of school yard bullies, shoving and pushing, and I'm living in the little shy boy country way down in the South Pacific part of the playground, terrified that one of the gang members will notice us.
ReplyDeleteI TRY and tell our government to stop taking sides, stop talking big, and that we are merely 5 million and can't back up our fist shaking.