Axis of Upheaval

Today a new Axis of Upheaval—the increasing alignment among China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—is fundamentally altering the geopolitical landscape. Cooperation among the four countries was expanding before 2022, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerated their deepening economic, military, and technological ties. Bound by shared opposition to a U.S.-led global order, the four powers are growing in strength and coordination and bent on upheaval.

The United States and its partners must treat this new axis as the generational challenge it is.

Given the stakes for U.S. national security, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is undertaking a major research initiative focused on the increasing strategic convergence of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. This initiative aims to identify ways in which the four states are working together and map both the drivers of and the constraints on their cooperation. It will forecast the ways in which this cooperation is most likely to develop in the future, including specific scenarios where collaboration would be most meaningful—and dangerous. CNAS will also craft recommendations for U.S. and allied policymakers on how to respond to the axis in the military, economic, diplomatic, and technology domains.

The United States must reinforce the foundations of the international order and push back against those who act most vigorously to undermine it. It may be impossible to arrest the emergence of this new axis but preventing it from upending the current system is achievable. This CNAS initiative will spell out how the United States can best accomplish this vital goal.

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