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 manned Shenzhou-12 spacecraft onboard the Long March-2F rocket launches at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 17, 2021, in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
People's Liberation Army Honor Guard attend a flag-raising ceremony at the Tiananmen Square to mark the seventy-second anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 2021, in Beijing, China. (VCG via Getty Images)
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri photographed in 2001. (Hamid Mir via Wikimedia Commons http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2011/05/03/feature-02)
A man looks on at a snow-covered security checkpoint that marks the entrance to Logar province, beyond the southern gate on January 17, 2022, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
An Iranian boy in an IRGC uniform waves a flag in front of two ballistic missiles during a rally in Tehran on February 10, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Vladimir Putin, together with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov, observed the main stage of the Vostok-2022 strategic command post exercise at the Sergeyevsky range in the Primorye Territory. (Kremlin)