axis of upheaval

Noun

the axis of upheaval (plural not attested)

1. (neologism, no plural) The alleged antiwestern collaboration between China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
   • The four powers increasingly identify common interests, match up their rhetoric, and coordinate their military and diplomatic activities. Their convergence is creating a new axis of upheaval—a development that is fundamentally altering the geopolitical landscape.2024 May/June, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Richard Fontaine, “The Axis of Upheaval: How America’s Adversaries Are Uniting to Overturn the Global Order”, in Foreign Affairs, volume 103, page 50
   • Washington’s efforts at strengthening its Quad relationship is being met by a new quad, the so-called “axis of upheaval” involving Beijing, Moscow, Pyongyang, and Tehran.2024 May, Ralph A Cossa, Brad Glosserman, “The ‘year of elections,’ take two!”, in Comparative Connections, volume 26, page 2
2. (no plural) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see axis, upheaval.
   • Argentina’s financial tremors, plus the spectacle of a near-coup in oil-rich Venezuela in April and a heating-up guerrilla war in Colombia, have drawn attention to what Mr. Shifter calls the “axis of upheaval,” and put the region as a whole on the world’s “troublespot” list.2002 August 7, Howard LaFranchi, quoting Michael Shifter, “S. America reels, looks north again”, in The Christian Science Monitor, page 1