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)
German Chancellor Fredrich Merz during his meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw, Poland, on May 7, 2025. (Jakub Porzycki via Getty Images)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz listens to a reporter's question during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on June 5, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomes US President Joe Biden at Schloss Bellevue on October 18, 2024, in Berlin, Germany. (Sean Gallup via Getty Images)
In this aerial view water vapor and exhaust rise from the steel mill of Salzgitter AG, one of Europe's largest steel producers, as residential buildings stand nearby on November 22, 2023, in Salzgitter, Germany. (Sean Gallup 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)
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Andrzej Duda, and Isaac Herzog at the central commemoration on the eightieth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19, 2023, in Warsaw, Poland. (Sandra Steins/Bundesregierung via Getty Images)
Ukrainian and Polish soldiers hold wreaths during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish President Andrzej Duda's visit to Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, on January 11, 2023. (President of Ukraine via Flickr)
The crew of a Leopard 2 main battle tank waiting for Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his visit to the Bundeswehr army training center in Ostenholz, Germany, on October 17, 2022. (David Hecker via Getty Images)