Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sits beside Iranian officials and other leaders during his swearing-in ceremony in Tehran on July 30, 2024. On the first row, second to the left, is Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. (Getty Images)
Cover: Edited version of US Air Force, US Navy, and US Marine Corps aircraft along with US Army Patriot missile batteries line up on the runway for an elephant walk during a routine operational readiness exercise at Kadena Air Base in Japan on May 6, 2025. (US Air Force)
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sits beside Iranian officials and other leaders during his swearing-in ceremony in Tehran on July 30, 2024. On the first row, second to the left, is Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. (Getty Images)
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 19, 2023. (Leah Millis/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Guard of Honor of the Chinese People's Liberation Army escorts the national flag during a flag-raising ceremony at the Tiananmen Square to celebrate New Year's Day on January 1,2023, in Beijing, China. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Visitors walk past China's second nuclear missile on display as they visit the Military Museum in Beijing, on July 23, 2007. (Teh Eng Koon/AFP via Getty Images)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stands in front of a Puma infantry fighting vehicle of the Bundeswehr while visiting the Bundeswehr army training center in Ostenholz on October 17, 2022, near Hodenhagen, Germany. (David Hecker via Getty Images)