Iran Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers' Meeting on June 26, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Fu Tian via Getty Images)
Vehicles waiting to be loaded onto roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ships for export on August 12, 2025, in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province of China. (Getty Images)
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)
A worker inspects the form of the shaped steel billets following the press stage in the manufacturing process of 155mm caliber shells at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Pennsylvania on April 16, 2024. (Getty Images)
China’s President Xi Jinping, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin arrive for a reception in the Great Hall of the People following a military parade in Beijing on September 3, 2025. (Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping greet each other during a welcoming ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin on August 31, 2025. (Getty Images)
Chinese honor guards participate in a welcome ceremony in Tianjin, China, on August 31, 2025, as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. (Vladimir Smirnov via Getty Images)
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