These days, the “Axis of Upheaval” poses a greater threat
Forget the “Axis of Evil” that former president George W. Bush said threatened world peace and security. British historian Niall Ferguson sees a much greater danger from what he describes as the ‘Axis of Upheaval’–states that threaten the world not because of their wicked intentions but their instability. Ferguson, whose masterful book The War of the World examines the mass slaughter of the 20th century, concludes there are three factors that make the location and timing of lethal organized violence more or less predictable: ethnic disintegration, economic volatility, and empires in decline. He sees all three factors coalescing again today.