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)
US President Donald Trump listens to questions from reporters after speaking on economic data in the Oval Office on August 7, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee via Getty Images)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, President Vladimir Putin meets with Moscow-installed head of the Donetsk region in Russian-controlled Ukraine, Denis Pushilin (not pictured), at the Kremlin in Moscow on August 4, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel via Getty Images)
Ukrainian servicemen of a mobile air defense unit fire a Soviet-made ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin autocannon toward a Russian drone during an air attack near Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, on July 19, 2025. (Roman Pilipey via Getty Images)
A general view of protesters during a rally against a law that would restrict the independence of anti‑corruption institutions on July 22, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Dan Bashakov via Getty Images)
Workers collect glass and debris after a Russian Shahed drone strikes the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on July 30, 2025. (Francisco Richart Barbeira via Getty Images)
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)