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)
People watch a television screen showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch at the Seoul Railway Station on August 17, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a ceremony formally annexing four regions of Ukraine at the Kremlin on September 30, 2022. (Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
A member of the Komala opposition party stands in the remains of what used to be its headquarters. Iranian missiles and drones struck multiple headquarters of Kurdish opposition groups in the KRI on September 28, 2022, in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. (Hawre Khalid/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow might use nuclear weapons if the West attacks Russian territory. (PHOTO: GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/KREMLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A picture taken on November 10, 2019, shows an Iranian flag in Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, during an official ceremony to kick-start works on a second reactor at the facility. Bushehr is Iran's only nuclear power station and is currently running on imported fuel from Russia that is closely monitored by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)
An F-35B Lightning II lands on the flight deck aboard amphibious assault carrier USS Tripoli in the Philippine Sea on September 12, 2022. (US Navy Photo by Malcolm Kelley)