Trump’s madcap folly emboldening this ‘axis of upheaval’ |
Trump’s madcap folly emboldening this ‘axis of upheaval’
April 21, 2026 — 5:00am
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US President Donald Trump has damaged most American alliances and split NATO. “A divide has opened up between Europe and the US,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in February. The pre-existing global order does not exist, he said.
Or, as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk put it when speaking of Trump: “With friends like that, who needs enemies?” Unfortunately, we allies of the US get both. We get Trump’s madcap America and a group of hardened enemies as well.
While the US alliance system is splintering, another team has been forming. It has received scant attention so far. There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of it. It goes by the acronym CRINKs – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
“It’s about how they assist each other to fight wars,” says Lavina Lee, director of the foreign policy and defence program at the University of Sydney’s US Studies Centre. “The world is becoming extremely dangerous because these countries are assisting each other to fight wars.”
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The four were grouped under the name CRINKs nine years ago because of their shared goal of challenging the US-led order. Their co-operation is today intensifying on the battlefields of Ukraine and Iran. A pair of US scholars calls it a “generational challenge”.
“This is a group bent on upheaval,” writes Andrea........