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)
Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Asheville salute the national ensign after arriving at Royal Australian Navy HMAS Stirling Naval Base on February 27, 2023. (Australia Department of Defence)
The Virginia-class, fast-attack submarine USS Indiana transits the Thames River as it arrives in Groton, Connecticut, on October 29, 2018. (US Navy photo by Steven Hoskins)
A view of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, which was previously the office of the governor-general of Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule. (Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
HMS Queen Elizabeth launches a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, and JS Kaga in the background as part of Maritime Partnership Exercise in Bay of Bengal, on October 17, 2021. (Russell Lindsey via DVIDS)
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Uzbek Acting Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on March 1, 2023. (State Department photo by Chuck Kennedy)
The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Mississippi moors at Stirling Naval Base in Western Australia on November 28, 2022. (US Marine Corps photo by John Hall)
US Marines with 5th Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, drive an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System onto a US Air Force C-5 Galaxy during a loading exercise at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton in California on February 7, 2023. (US Marine Corps photo by Cameron Hermanet)