Chinese military personnel take part in a rehearsal ahead of a parade commemorating the eightieth anniversary of victory in World War II in Beijing on August 20, 2025. (Pedro Pardo via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
US Commerce Secretary Howard William Lutnick and Japanese Minister for Economic Revitalization Ryosei Akazawa shake hands on on September 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) sails in formation during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise on July 28, 2022. (DVIDS)
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
A microchip and Taiwanese flag displayed on a phone screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo on April 10, 2023. (Jakub Porzycki via Getty Images)
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, National Leader and Chairman of the People’s Council of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev meet at a high-level trilateral summit in the Awaza National Tourism Zone of Turkmenistan on August 22, 2025. (Getty Images)
A refugee camp created after Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia is seen between Gori and South Ossetia, Georgia, on March 17, 2017. (Nicolas Economou via Getty Images)
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attend a plenary session at the BRICS summit, in Kazan, Russia, on October 24, 2024. (Photo by Maxim Shmetov/AFP via Getty)
Cars wait in line at the Bender crossing point between the self-proclaimed republic of Transnistria and Moldova on March 1, 2024. (Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders' summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 3, 2024. (Photo by Sergei Guneyev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
US Army infantry soldiers wait for further instruction during a force on force exercise near Tapa, Estonia, on April 14, 2024. (US Army photo by Spc. Trey Gonzales)
Smoke rises over hypermarket ‘Epicentr’ after Russian air attack on May 25, 2024, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)