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)
Military vehicles attend a rehearsal of the Victory Day parade on May 7, 2022 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Tian Bing/China News Service 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 has warned that Moscow might use nuclear weapons if the West attacks Russian territory. (PHOTO: GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/KREMLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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)
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)
North Korean People's Army soldiers march on September 9, 2018, in Pyongyang, North Korea, as part of a parade celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the nation's founding. (Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)
Airmen prepare an AGM-86B air-launched cruise missile for a nuclear weapons system evaluation program test flight at Minot Air Force Base on April 10, 2013. (Tech Sgt. Mark Bell/Air Force Global Strike Command Public Affairs)
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)