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)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House of Representatives at the US Capitol on April 11, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) soldiers escort civilian vehicles transporting goods from Beni toward Komanda on March 19, 2022. (Photo by Sebastien Kitsa Musayi/AFP via Getty Images)
A member of a Ukrainian artillery brigade during a training session near Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, on February 27, 2024. (Photo by Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Images)
Ukrainian servicemen fire a French-made CAESAR self-propelled howitzer toward Russian positions in eastern Ukraine on December 28, 2022. (Photo by Sameer al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images)
An unmanned surface vehicle (USV) conducts testing of an autonomous over-the-horizon solution conceived by student researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) during a Navy exercise off the coast of California on August 19, 2023. (US Navy photo)
A Ukrainian serviceman holds a Stinger anti-aircraft weapon onboard a Maritime Guard of the State Border Service of Ukraine boat as it patrols in the northwestern Black Sea on December 18, 2023. (Anatolii Stepanov via Getty Images)
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with representatives from the American business, strategic, and academic communities at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 27, 2024. (Photo by Shen Hong via Getty Images)
Members of the Taliban gather to commemorate the one year anniversary of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in Kabul on August 21, 2022. (Marcus Yam via Getty Images)