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)
Clashes erupt between Georgian police and protesters on the second day of protest against "foreign agents" bill, in Tblisi, Geogia on March 08, 2023 (David Mdzinarishvili via Getty Images)
Iran Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers' Meeting on June 26, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Fu Tian 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)
China’s President Xi Jinping, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin arrive for a reception in the Great Hall of the People following a military parade in Beijing on September 3, 2025. (Getty Images)
A soldier from the 47th Brigade's mortar crew, Varvara with the call sign 'Kosa', aims a mortar for firing on August 12, 2025 in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine. (Vitalii Nosach via Getty Images)
Chinese honor guards participate in a welcome ceremony in Tianjin, China, on August 31, 2025, as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. (Vladimir Smirnov via Getty Images)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during the Victory Day military parade at Red Square in central Moscow on May 9, 2025. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev via Getty Images)
Actors perform during a ceremony as part of a presentation of a fifteenth-century ring believed to have been owned by French heroine Joan of Arc on March 20, 2016, at the Puy du Fou historical theme park in Les Epesses, France. (Jean-Sebastien Evrard via Getty Images)