America’s nationwide pursuits are more and more challenged on the world stage by an “axis of authoritarians,” in line with a longtime U.S. authorities safety adviser, who warns of an “expanding club of rogue states” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea at its core.
“The leadership role that the United States has played for the past seven decades is under greater pressure today than ever before,” stated Amb. Robert G. Joseph, a former undersecretary of state for arms management and worldwide safety who helped form U.S. strategic coverage over a decades-long diplomatic profession.
U.S. efforts to comprise hovering rigidity in Asia and raging wars within the Mideast and Europe are being undermined by the “mega-threat of the axis of authoritarianism,” Amb. Joseph stated Tuesday in an look on “The Washington Brief,” a digital, month-to-month occasion collection hosted by The Washington Times Foundation.
Having served in successive administrations from the late-Nineteen Seventies by means of the early-2000s, he described the present problem as “a complex, multi-dimensional threat that affects international diplomacy and politics, global economics and of course, military capabilities in every domain.”
The extra “coordination, consolidation and collusion” between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — whether or not in Ukraine, towards Taiwan or in Mideast terrorist and proxy wars — the “more at risk is our ability to protect and advance our geostrategic interests,” Amb. Joseph stated.
China, he stated, holds probably the most sturdy position within the axis and has taken the lead in making an attempt to “establish a new world order replacing the U.S.-led system founded in 1945.”
The “predatory nature” of China‘s broader strategy is clearly reflected in its economic policies, Amb. Joseph said, pointing to what he said was the massive theft of intellectual property by companies tied to the ruling Communist Party and China‘s appetite for strategic natural resources from Africa to South America.
“But the most alarming component,” he said, is the buildup of China‘s military, which currently features the largest conventional forces and is expanding and modernizing its cyber, space and naval capabilities.
“The Chinese navy now has more ships than ours, giving Beijing a blue-water capability with bases stretching from its artificial and now militarized islands in the South China Sea to Pakistan to Djibouti,” Amb. Joseph said, adding that the “recent appearance of Chinese naval ships in the eastern Mediterranean should serve as a wake up call to all.”
“But massive growth of China‘s nuclear force is even more alarming,” he added, citing assessments that Beijing is on pace to field more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030 and already has more intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than the United States.
“At a minimum, Beijing seems to be seeking parity [with Washington] in nuclear weapons, allowing it to negate any U.S. advantage in escalation,” he said.
Deeper ties
The threat becomes even more of a challenge to meet when China forges deeper ties with other “axis of authoritarianism” nations, Amb. Joseph said.
China and Russia are undercutting Western sanctions against North Korea and Iran, he said, and China‘s purchase of gas and oil from Russia and Iran frustrates U.S. efforts to box in Tehran. Moscow’s ties with each Iran and North Korea have “greatly expanded in both the political and military spheres” because the begin of Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine.
“Both Pyongyang and Tehran have also become suppliers to Russia‘s war, with North Korea providing massive amounts of artillery munitions, and Iran large numbers of reconnaissance and attack drones, including an agreement to build a factory in Russia to produce more drones,” he said.
Amb. Joseph also pointed to reports that North Korea was the source for rocket launchers, rocket propelled grenades and military communication equipment used by Hamas in its attack last month on Israel. “This could not have happened without Iran‘s funding and direction,” he said.
Amb. Joseph described the growing “no limits” partnership between Beijing and Moscow as most worrisome, including “increasingly large-scale joint training and exercises, and the sale of advanced technology arms, especially from Russia to China,” posing a strategic challenge “more complex” than even that faced by the West in the depths of the Cold War.
Amb. Joseph said the U.S. should not embrace “regime change” policies through military intervention toward Iran and North Korea, but rather recognize the citizens of both must bring about the overthrow of their oppressive dictatorships. “That means placing the cause of human rights upfront in our strategy in a way that supports the aspirations of the people,” he said.
Equally important is the need for Washington to show strength on the world stage, he said, asserting the Biden administration’s troubled 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal had solely emboldened the nation’s adversaries.
“If any administration can say that the Afghan withdrawal was an extraordinary success that tells you all you need to know about the credibility of that administration,” he stated. “It’s an administration that in my view exudes weakness.
“As [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said, ‘Weakness is provocative,’” Amb. Joseph stated. “And we will be, I think, paying a price for that weakness for some time to come.”
