Every now and then, I come across analysis so incisive, intelligent and unsettling that I’m forced to stop and take a deep breath.
Historian Philip Zelikow’s recent ruminations on contemporary geopolitics is one such work. His warnings about the prospects for worldwide war in the next three years sadly tied together a slew of new writings — and recent events — that all underscore the dangers of the world we live in.
Start with the emergence of “the axis of upheaval,” a cabal that includes China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The moniker was coined by Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Richard Fontaine, of CNAS, the Washington-based national security think tank. The group has been getting considerable attention in recent weeks since China, North Korea and Iran have been identified as “critical enablers of Moscow’s war machine.”