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)
An RT-2PM2 intercontinental ballistic missile on display at Army Expo 2022 in Moscow's Patriot Park on August 20, 2022. (Washington Post via Getty Images)
The manned Shenzhou-12 spacecraft onboard the Long March-2F rocket launches at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 17, 2021, in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. (Kevin Frayer/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)
Vladimir Putin, together with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov, observed the main stage of the Vostok-2022 strategic command post exercise at the Sergeyevsky range in the Primorye Territory. (Kremlin)
US officials including John Kerry and Robert Malley negotiate terms of a nuclear nonproliferation agreement with the leaders of Iran's nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19, 2015. (State Department)
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)
The RT-2PM2 Topol-M space intercontinental ballistic missiles, cold-launched, three-stage, solid-propellant, road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles with thermonuclear warheads. Rehearsal for Victory Day Military Parade in Moscow, Russia on April 26, 2012. (Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons)