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)
A US Green Beret and members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force prepare for joint drills in Barrigada, Guam, on July 28, 2022. (US Army Photo by Matthew Crane)
Sailors conduct helicopter rope suspension technique training from an MH-60S Sea Hawk on the flight deck aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippine Sea on October 29, 2022. (US Navy Photo by Michael B. Jarmiolowski)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone, which local authorities believe to be Iranian-made Shahed-136, in central Kyiv on October 17, 2022. (Oleksii Chumachenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Ships from the US, Japan, and Republic of Korea conduct a trilateral ballistic missile defense exercise in the Sea of Japan, on October 6, 2022. (US Navy Photo by Gray Gibson)
Nigerian soldiers pose during a demonstration of force against Boko Haram militants in Kelouri, Nigeria, on February 29, 2016. (VOA/Nicolas Pinault via Wikimedia Commons)
Missiles fire over the Caspian Sea during the Caucasus-2020 military drills between Iran, China, Russia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus, on September 23, 2020. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)
A woman walks past a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test in Seoul, South Korea, on November 3, 2022. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images)