Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meet in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on July 10, 2025. (Getty Images)
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 woman walks past a concrete shelter painted in the style of Ukrainian embroidered ornamentation on May 17, 2025, in Kherson, Ukraine. According to the city military administration, there are over 800 shelters of various types in Kherson. (Ivan Antypenko via Getty Images)
A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan Island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in Fujian Province, China, on October 15, 2024. (Adek Berry via Getty Images)
Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects troops during a parade commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing on September 3, 2015. (Huang Xiaobang via Getty Images)
Wild peach and apricot flowers are in full bloom in Yanqing District, encircling the Longquanyu Great Wall on March 25, 2025, in Beijing. (Hao Jihong via Getty Images)