Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sits beside Iranian officials and other leaders during his swearing-in ceremony in Tehran on July 30, 2024. On the first row, second to the left, is Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. (Getty Images)
Cover: Edited version of US Air Force, US Navy, and US Marine Corps aircraft along with US Army Patriot missile batteries line up on the runway for an elephant walk during a routine operational readiness exercise at Kadena Air Base in Japan on May 6, 2025. (US Air Force)
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sits beside Iranian officials and other leaders during his swearing-in ceremony in Tehran on July 30, 2024. On the first row, second to the left, is Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. (Getty Images)
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the prospect foundation forum in Taipei. (Photo by Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Field artillery cannoneer emplaces M777A2 Howitzer during Artillery Relocation Training Program 21.1, at Combined Arms Training Center, Camp Fuji, Japan, April 26, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps/ Michael Jefferson Estillomo)
EU Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen speaks to the press in the Berlaymont, the European Union Commission headquarters on April 27, 2022, in Brussels, Belgium. (Getty Images)
Leaders representing Russia, Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Kyrgyzstan attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State in Bishek in 2019. (Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is applauded by members of his government as he arrives for the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People on March 11, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute