President-elect Trump is expected to deploy his trademark mix of belligerent threats and friendly relations with some of the world's dictators as he seeks to break up the deepening partnerships between U.S. adversaries China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Whether that coheres into an effective policy — given Trump’s impulsive approach to global relations and contrasting views among his likely advisers — remains an open question.
The president-elect is antagonistic toward European allies and NATO, chastising them as relying too much on the U.S. for military support, and brags about his personal rapport with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.
“We'll have a very good relationship, and there's reasons for them to want to like us, there's big reasons,” Trump said during a campaign appearance in Arizona in late October, referring to Putin, Xi and Kim — in the context of dismantling their alliance.
“Look at what these stupid people have done, they've allowed Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and others to get together in a group, this is impossible to think,” he said.
This grouping of countries has been described in foreign policy circles as an “axis of aggressors,” “axis of upheaval,” and “CRINK” (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea).
The war in Ukraine has served as an accelerant for these relationships, with Putin turning to Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran to fund and equip his war machine, and each country, in turn, seeking rewards in return, either economically, militarily or politically.
Foreign policy experts say the CRINK countries are not natural allies and still have plenty of conflicting national interests. But unity in opposing American supremacy on the world stage is a powerful convening force.
“I do think that the relationship between these actors is deeper and more durable than many people believe and such that each of these........