OPINION:
If my relatives who fought in World War II were alive today, they would admonish elected U.S. officials about this century’s Axis of Dictatorships — the alliance of Iran, Russia, China and North Korea.
This alliance has spawned a threat landscape evocative of the Tripartite Alliance of Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.
The dictators from these two eras share a ruthless and violent subjugation of their citizens, denial of basic human rights and massive state propaganda.
Just like during the 1930s and 1940s, the U.S. is in the crosshairs.
United in their strategic objective to reduce or altogether eliminate U.S. global influence and the strategic partnerships on which the U.S. economy so deeply relies, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran enable one another’s wide-ranging attacks on the U.S. and our allies in Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.
Nowhere has this unprecedented military, intelligence, commercial and diplomatic collaboration been more apparent than on the battlefields in the Middle East and Ukraine.
China, Iran’s leading trading partner, imports roughly 90% of Iran’s oil, generating tens of billions of dollars in revenue for the Islamic regime to spend on nuclear weapons development, ballistic missile programs and material support to proxy terrorists.
In 2021, China and Iran signed a 25-year “comprehensive strategic partnership” deal focused on economic, security and technological cooperation.
Deploying front companies and a shadow fleet, China has supplied Iran with dual-use military equipment, including engines and semiconductors used in Iranian drones, while enabling Iran to evade global sanctions.
Days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “no-limits” strategic partnership, with Mr. Putin declaring that Taiwan was an inalienable part of China.
Facing massive sanctions and closed markets in the West, Mr. Putin has become ever more dependent on China, especially as a market for hydrocarbon exports. Russia and China have also conducted a series of military exercises to enhance joint interoperability and present a united front against NATO.
In 2023, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Siberia, where they discussed collaboration on satellite technology in return for North Korean artillery and soldiers deployed to the front lines in Ukraine.
Russia and Iran have built joint-venture drone production facilities to support their war machines.
Under the guise of creating a “multipolar” world, the Axis of Dictatorships wants to degrade the powerful U.S. network of global alliances to dominate weaker neighboring countries and create self-designated spheres of influence.
Russia and Iran have taken risky, provocative actions because they are confident that support from their fellow dictatorships will ensure they withstand the consequences.
The U.S. and our allies must set out as our highest priority to break up the axis of dictatorships. The U.S. intelligence community will play a key role by collecting on the fault lines within the axis, specifically where there might be conflicts we can exploit to drive wedges between our adversaries.
We should share this intelligence as widely as possible with our allies to build a stronger unity of mission.
The best place to start would be to ensure Russia is defeated in its barbaric war on Ukraine and is unable to threaten the trillion-dollar U.S. trade with Europe.
We should also work with our Gulf state partners and NATO allies to ensure that, going forward, we can independently keep the Strait of Hormuz open so Iran cannot extort us in the future. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team should mount a diplomatic full-court press to make China pay a price for supporting Russia and Iran by working with Ukraine and the Gulf states to deny Beijing the strong commercial relationships it seeks.
We also must mobilize our collective resources to carry on taking the fight to Iran’s ruthless proxy terrorists while ensuring that Iran can never rearm and reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction.
Ukraine and the Middle East are where this century’s revolution in military affairs is changing the way wars will be fought. We should significantly expand our military cooperation with Ukraine. Kyiv’s superior drone technology and tactics can energize our industrial base so we can most effectively counter, defend against and deter Iran, Russia, China and North Korea.
That is the key to making the U.S. the arsenal of democracy once again, with the capability to support our allies and partners around the globe as a powerful force multiplier for our national security.
• Daniel N. Hoffman is a retired clandestine services officer and former chief of station with the Central Intelligence Agency. His combined 30 years of government service included high-level overseas and domestic positions at the CIA. He has been a Fox News contributor since May 2018. He can be reached at danielhoffman@yahoo.com. All statements of fact, opinion or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or endorsement of the CIA or any other U.S. government agency.
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