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)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 4, 2022. (US Space Force photo by Dakota Raub)
A People's Liberation Army Air Force WZ-7 high-altitude reconnaissance drone in Guangdong, China, on September 27, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukrainian soldiers fire an artillery shell on the frontline in Donetsk, Ukraine, on December 4, 2022. (Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A Coast Guardsman prepares to land a drone on the deck of the Coast Guard cutter Tern following a 164-day deployment to the Western Pacific in Alameda, California, on July 2, 2019. (US Coast Guard photo by Matthew S. Masaschi)