America Has a New Axis of Evil to Prevent
To avoid a wider war, American diplomacy must keep China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as separate as possible. That’ll be hard.
A new Axial Age?
Photographer: Vladimir Smirnov/AFP via Getty Images
Since Feb. 24, 2022, and especially since Oct. 7, 2023, a specter has haunted the world and worried US President Joe Biden in particular: Will Russia’s war against Ukraine, or Israel’s against Hamas, draw in other belligerents, perhaps even culminating in World War III?
Biden has therefore done everything in his power to support Ukraine and Israel while also keeping the US and its Western allies out of direct confrontations with Russia, Hamas’ backers in Iran, and their Chinese and North Korean quasi-allies. But conflicts change unpredictably. Every vagary increases the risk that an artillery round fired over here sends missiles flying over there and detonates a bigger blow-up.