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)
Amid intensifying threats military from China, Taiwanese soldiers carrying artillery to tanks during the two-day live-fire drill in Pingtung, Taiwan, on September 7, 2022. (Photo by Ceng Shou Yi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Ukrainian soldiers use an armored engineer vehicle based on a Leopard tank chassis to pull their comrades car from a ditch on May 11, 2023. (Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Members of the Wagner Group prepare to depart from the Southern Military District's headquarters and return to their base on June 24, 2023, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Visitors walk past China's second nuclear missile on display as they visit the Military Museum in Beijing, on July 23, 2007. (Teh Eng Koon/AFP via Getty Images)