In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Vladimir Putin enters a hall to meet with graduates of higher military educational institutions at the Kremlin on June 23, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov via Getty Images)
A formation of Dongfeng-41 nuclear missiles takes part in a military parade celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 2019. (Xia Yifang via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pose for a picture with European leaders following a meeting at the White House on August 18, 2025. (Win McNamee via Getty Images)
A US Marine Corps VXE30 Stalker unmanned aerial system is staged during a maritime domain awareness training exercise in southern Finland on July 31, 2025. (DVIDS)
Airmen prepare an AGM-86B air-launched cruise missile for a nuclear weapons system evaluation program test flight at Minot Air Force Base on April 10, 2013. (Tech Sgt. Mark Bell/Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs)
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Chinese President Xi Jinping during their bilateral meeting on November 13, 2019, in Brasilia, Brazil. (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. (Cabinet Public Affairs Office, Japan, https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/98_abe/actions/201906/28g20.html)
Stewards of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, on June 2, 2022. A landmark project under the Belt and Road Initiative, the railway connects Kunming with Vientiane, Laos. (Photo by Wang Guansen/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The RT-2PM2 Topol-M space intercontinental ballistic missiles, cold-launched, three-stage, solid-propellant, road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles with thermonuclear warheads. Rehearsal for Victory Day Military Parade in Moscow, Russia on April 26, 2012. (Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons)
An MV-22B Osprey lands aboard a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship for the first time on November 12, 2013, in Okinawa, Japan. (Marine Corps Photo by Lance Cpl. Matt Myers)