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)
Leaders representing Russia, Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Kyrgyzstan attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State in Bishek in 2019. (Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 9, 2022. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP via Getty Images)
Representatives of the European Union, Iran and others attend the Iran nuclear talks at the Grand Hotel on April 15, 2021 in Vienna, Austria. (Photo by EU Delegation in Vienna via Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hold a joint press conference following their meeting within the Negev Summit in Tel Aviv, Israel on March 27, 2022. (Photo by GPO/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 27, 2021. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
Iranian Clerics chant slogans during an anti-U.S. rally in Tehran on April 14, 2019 after the U.S. designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. (Photo by Rouzbeh Fouladi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during their meeting in Moscow on January 19, 2022. (Photo by Pavel Bednyakov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)