Strategic Assessment

In his State of the Union Address of late January 2002, US President George W. Bush coined the phrase “œaxis of evil,” which has since become a common figure of speech. In discussing the need to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening the US or its allies with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), Bush made brief but pointed reference to North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. Bush maintained that “states like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.”