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)
Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force disembark from a US Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey as part of joint military drill Operation Keen Sword in Kumamoto, Japan, on November 16, 2022. (Marine Corps photo by Justin Marty)
A destroyed Russian tank stands by the road in front of an orthodox temple in the liberated town of Sviatohirsk, Ukraine, on November 30, 2022. (Andriy Andriyenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
An elderly woman grieves next to the grave of a Ukrainian soldier during Ukraine's Army Day in Lviv, Ukraine, on December 6, 2022. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP via Getty Images)
Paratroopers take part in the Caucasus 2020 joint military drills, which included Russian and Belarusian troops, on September 25, 2020, in Southern Russia. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukrainian servicemen at a site of a residential building destroyed by a Russian missile attack near Kyiv, Ukraine on November 23, 2022. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)