This photograph shows a Dassault Rafale aircraft parked on the tarmac of the French Air and Space Force Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, France, on March 18, 2025. (Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)
Ethiopian Republican Guards await the arrival of the French president and Ethiopian prime minister, who visited the National Palace in Addis Ababa on December 21, 2024. (Ludovic Marin via Getty Images)
A South Korean Army K1E1 tank crosses a pontoon bridge on the Imjin River during a joint river- crossing exercise as part of the Freedom Shield military drills with US and ROK forces in the border town of Yeoncheon, South Korea, on March 20, 2025. (Getty Images)
Gunners from the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire at Russian position with a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer 2C22 in the Kharkiv region on April 21, 2024. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
Chinese sailors stand next to a submarine rescue ship Hongzehu from the PLA Navy as it is docked on April 23, 2024, in Qingdao, China.(Kevin Frayer via Getty Images)
The guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald fires the first Naval Strike Missile from a US destroyer on July 18, 2024, in the Pacific Ocean. (US Navy photo)
Mike Watson is the associate director of Hudson Institute’s Center for the Future of Liberal Society. He holds a BA in history from the University of Virginia and an MA in security policy studies from George Washington University. He writes weekly for the Washington Free Beacon about foreign affairs, and his written work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, Tablet, and National Affairs. His research focuses on America’s competitive advantages against foreign adversaries and the historical roots of American foreign policy and strategic thought.
The leaders of the Big Three meeting at Potsdam, (from left) British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), American President Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972) and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953), Germany, 2nd August 1945. (Photo by Imagno/
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech as he visits the National Space Centre construction site in Moscow on February 27, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
A U.S. Chinook military helicopter flies above the US embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2021. Several hundred employees of the US embassy in Kabul have been evacuated from Afghanistan, a US defense official said on August 15, 2021, as the Taliban entered the
President Joe Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House staff, participates in the virtual Quad Summit in the State Dining Room of the White House (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
U.S. President Joe Biden (2L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands as Swiss President Guy Parmelin (R) looks on during the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange on June 16, 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland (Photo by Peter Klaunzer - Pool/Keystone v
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, sign the American Rescue Plan Act on the West Front of the Capitol (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)