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 serviceman stands guard with a shotgun as his fellow soldiers install anti-drone nets over a road at an undisclosed location in the eastern Donetsk region on July 8, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Roman Pilipey via Getty Images)
Ukrainian soldiers calibrate an agricultural drone, transformed into a front-line delivery system, during a demonstration at an undisclosed location near Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, on June 14, 2025. (Florent Vergnes via Getty Images)
Soldiers pulling down camouflage netting from a 122 mm howitzer 2A18 before combat work on June 19, 2025, in the Sumy region of Ukraine. (Nikoletta Stoyanova via Getty Images)
The Crimean Tatar flag flies on a flagpole in front of the Lviv Oblast Military Administration on May 17, 2024, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Stanislav Ivanov via Getty Images)
German Air Force helicopters get ready to take off in Panevezis, Lithuania, on May 6, 2025, during the Griffin Lightning 2025 military exercises. (Getty Images)
US Vice President JD Vance speaks with NATO Secretary General during a meeting in Munich, southern Germany, on February 14, 2025. (Tobias Schwarz via Getty Images)
Communal workers clean debris next to a damaged residential building following a Russian drone attack in Odesa, Ukraine, on June 10, 2025. (Oleksandr Gimanov via Getty Images)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey stand in front of a Royal Navy F-35B Lightning fighter jet on the flight deck of the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince Of Wales on April 24, 2025. (Richard Pohle via Getty Images)