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)
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz steams ahead of the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton during Malabar 2020 exercises in the north Arabian Sea, November 17, 2020. (US Navy)
President Tsai Ing-wen gives a speech on Taiwan's National Day in Taipei, Taiwan on October 10, 2020. (Photo by Annabelle Chih/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A Russian Moskva guided missile cruiser participates in a naval parade near a Ukrainian military base in Sevastopol. (Vasily Maximov/AFP via Getty Images)
Cargo containers sit stacked on ships at the Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s busiest container port, on October 15, 2021 in San Pedro, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
An MH-60R helicopter, assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 51, takes off from the flight deck as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin (DDG 89) conducts routine operations (U.S. Navy)
A Taliban fighter mans a machine gun mounted on a vehicle near the venue of an open-air pro-Taliban rally on the outskirts of Kabul on October 3, 2021 (Photo by HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images)
Battle Group Poland U.S., U.K and 15th Mechanized Brigade Polish tactical vehicles perform river crossing training June 19 in Rukla (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kevin Wang/Released)
Members of the audience stand and applaud Xi Jinping during his speech at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party at Tiananmen Square on July 1, 2021 (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
A medical worker wearing a PPE at Far Eastern Hospital triage patients who are receiving a Covid PCR test following a worsen local outbreak of COVID-19, in Taipei, Taiwan (Photo by Ceng Shou Yi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The US Legend-class national security Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton is seen in the port of Odessa on the Black Sea after conducting joint exercises according to NATO standards with the Ukrainian Navy ship Starobelsk on May 11, 2021 in Odessa, Ukraine (Photo