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)
Airmen prepare an AGM-86B air-launched cruise missile for a nuclear weapons system evaluation program test flight at Minot Air Force Base on April 10, 2013. (Tech Sgt. Mark Bell/Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs)
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Chinese President Xi Jinping during their bilateral meeting on November 13, 2019, in Brasilia, Brazil. (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. (Cabinet Public Affairs Office, Japan, https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/98_abe/actions/201906/28g20.html)
Stewards of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, on June 2, 2022. A landmark project under the Belt and Road Initiative, the railway connects Kunming with Vientiane, Laos. (Photo by Wang Guansen/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The RT-2PM2 Topol-M space intercontinental ballistic missiles, cold-launched, three-stage, solid-propellant, road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles with thermonuclear warheads. Rehearsal for Victory Day Military Parade in Moscow, Russia on April 26, 2012. (Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons)
An MV-22B Osprey lands aboard a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship for the first time on November 12, 2013, in Okinawa, Japan. (Marine Corps Photo by Lance Cpl. Matt Myers)