Emerging Anti-US Axis Worrisome But ‘Not Acting As A Bloc’ – Analysis

Jeff Seldin

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Washington’s most dangerous adversaries may be working together more closely than ever before, but U.S. intelligence analysts think that for now, they are falling short of forming a tight-knit alliance that could more effectively counter the United States.

Concerns among the United States and its allies about growing cooperation among Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have been increasing steadily since Moscow launched its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine — sustained by intelligence showing Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang providing Russia with technology, missiles, drones and even troops for the war effort.

The former commander of U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific earlier this year went as far as to describe the growing ties between the four U.S. adversaries as a nascent “axis of evil.”

Yet U.S. intelligence officials believe the axis, in some ways, has been bogged down by its own shortcomings.

“They’re not acting as a bloc,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, speaking Thursday in Washington at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“We don’t see them as a sort of four-part alliance or something along those lines,” she said. “We don’t see them likely as becoming allies in the same way that we are allies with our NATO partners, for example — that kind of level of interoperability and military collaboration.”

U.S. intelligence analysts, however, still see the axis as a concern on several fronts.

Haines said the increased cooperation among Russia, China, Iran and North Korea has contributed to a further erosion of international norms around weapons of mass destruction.

Where Russia and China were once more willing to cooperate with the United States and the West on nuclear counterproliferation, Moscow and Beijing now seem more inclined to give Iran and North Korea additional leeway.