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 Ukrainian soldier with an anti aircraft missile system near Sloviansk, eastern Ukraine on May 11, 2022. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images)
Leaders representing Russia, Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Kyrgyzstan attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State in Bishek in 2019. (Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev greets Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilaterlal meeting at the Russian-Kazakh Regional Forum on November 7, 2019 in Omsk, Russia. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
A RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile vehicle during the rehearsals for the Victory Day Military Parade, on April 18, 2022 in Alabino, outside of Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin looks on during talks with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on April 12, 2022. (Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)