EDITOR'S NOTES: Holidays with the CRINKs, Not a Lot of Fun
12/22/2023
By Stew Magnuson
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — When first hearing the word CRINKs, I thought they were talking about some wacky family in a movie. Wasn’t that a hit comedy? “Meet the CRINKs,” or “Holiday with the CRINKs?”
In fact, CRINKs isn’t a family name. It’s an acronym for China, Russia, Iran, North Korea.
And there’s nothing funny nowadays about them.
The term “CRINKs” was first heard at the 15th annual 2023 Halifax International Security Forum, and the term is the brainchild of its founder and president Peter Van Praagh. The forum invites about 300 attendees from 75 democratic countries each year — diplomats, academics, military officers, politicians, activists and journalists — to engage in discussions about the state of democracy around the world and to get what he calls “an annual dose of moral clarity.”
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2023/12/22/editors-notes-holidays-with-the-crinks-not-a-lot-of-fun
