Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meet in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on July 10, 2025. (Getty Images)
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 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)
Xi Jinping is welcomed by Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud at the Palace of Yamamah in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on December 8, 2022. (Royal Court of Saudi Arabia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Moroccan and Chinese officials sign a memorandum of understanding to promote trade between the two countries in Rabat, Morocco, on November 30, 2023. (Twitter via HAIDAAbdelali)
An Iranian long range surface to surface Qadr missile and an anti-aircraft gun are displayed in a war exhibition organized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in a park in southern Tehran to mark the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war on September 23, 2021. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Missiles fire over the Caspian Sea during the Caucasus-2020 military drills between Iran, China, Russia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus, on September 23, 2020. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)
A boy looks on during a candlelight vigil to pay tribute to those who have died protesting the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who was killed in police custody after allegedly violating the country's hijab rules, outside the White House on October 1, 2022. (Bonnie Cash via Getty Images)
Israeli navy vessels off the coast of Rosh Hanikra, an area at the border between Israel and Lebanon, on June 6, 2022. (Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)
People gather in protest against the the Iranian regime on September 19, 2022, in Tehran, Iran, following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody of the country's morality police. (Getty Images)