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)
An MH-53E Sea Dragon prepares to land on the flight deck of San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland on July 12, 2022, off the coast of Southern California. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Devin Kates)
During a gala marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party, performers dressed as emergency workers surround a large Communist Party flag on June 28, 2021 at the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty)
The allegedly successful test-fire of the North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location on July 4, 2017. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Crew members are seen on the USS Indiana, a nuclear powered United States Navy Virginia-class fast attack submarine, as it departs Port Canaveral in Florida on October 1, 2018. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A C-17 Globemaster takes off as Taliban fighters secure the outer perimeter alongside the American controlled side of of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Taiwanese civilians in tactical gear and replica weapons taking part in an urban warfare workshop on June 18 in Linko district, New Taipei City. (Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP)
Taliban soldiers stand guard as inmates sit in a prison courtyard while waiting to be released on orders from the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada at Kandahar Central Prison in Kandahar on July 5, 2022. (Photo by JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska speaks to members of the US Congress in the US Capitol Visitors Center Auditorium on July 20, 2022, in Washington, DC, about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images)
An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military personnel walks next to an Iranian Emad Surface-to-Surface missile in downtown Tehran. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)