 If the axion is fundamental, or emerges at a scale far higher than the QCD scale, then the dimension 5 axion coupling term formula_1 is suppressed by formula_2 where formula_3 is the scale of the axion.Because of this, in order for "θ" to be so small at the minimum of the effective potential, the bare potential has to be many orders of magnitude smaller than the instanton induced potential, compounded by the formula_3 factor.This requires quite a bit of reconciliation with an approximate global symmetry, for which there is no current explanation.