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)
Afghan politician Ahmad Massoud, one of the leaders of the National Resistance Front and son of the famed Mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, in Paris, France, on March 22, 2021. (Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri photographed in 2001. (Hamid Mir via Wikimedia Commons http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2011/05/03/feature-02)
A man looks on at a snow-covered security checkpoint that marks the entrance to Logar province, beyond the southern gate on January 17, 2022, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
An Iranian boy in an IRGC uniform waves a flag in front of two ballistic missiles during a rally in Tehran on February 10, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Members of the IRGC parade under an Iranian Kheibar Shekan Ballistic missile in downtown Tehran on April 29, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Cover photo for an article published by al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) magazine Hitteen on China, Pakistan, and the Uyghurs. (Riccardo Valle and Lucas Webber)
A memorial at Camp Lejeune on August 6, 2022, for the thirteen service members killed in the 2021 Kabul airport suicide bombing. (Lance Cpl. Jessica J. Mazzamuto/USMC)
Iranian demonstrators burn an effigy of President Joe Biden in downtown Tehran during a rally commemorating the International Quds Day on April 29, 2022. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The China-donated Gwadar Technical and Vocational Institute in southwest Pakistan's Gwadar on October 1, 2021, just after the building's completion. (Photo by Str/Xinhua via Getty Images)