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)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken gives a speech on U.S. Africa Policy at the Economic Community of West African States in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 19, 2021. (Photo by ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
December 11, 2019 Nigerian refugee women at the growing Awaridi refugee settlement now home to 9,000 plus mostly northern Nigerians who fled Boko Haram violence over the past few years. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)
Soldiers stand beside damaged operational vehicles recovered from Boko Haram jihadists on display at the headquarters of the 120th Battalion in Goniri, Yobe State, in Nigeria's restive northeast on July 3, 2019. (Audu Marte/AFP via Getty Images)
A man prays at Mary Grotto at St Leo Church, Ikeja, Lagos. Members of St. Leo Catholic Church, Ikaja in Lagos Nigeria, dramatize the Station of the Cross, suffering and death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday, April 14 2017 (Photo by Adekunle Ajayi/NurPhoto
Relatives of abducted girls after the releasing 82 of school girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram in Chibok back in 2014, at Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja, Nigeria on May 7, 2017. (Photo by Sodiq Adelakun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Members of the Yansakai vigilante group sit inside the Zamfara State Government house as their members surrendered more than 500 guns as part of efforts to accept the peace process of the state government (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)
Niger's Armed Forces drive through the airport's tarmac in Diffa, southeastern Niger, as they patrol during a visit of Niger's Interior Minister on June 16, 2016 following attacks by Nigeria-based Boko Haram fighters in the region (Getty Images)