Jeffrey Lewis is director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
Performers dressed as soldiers perform in front of a screen showing rockets being launched during a mass gala marking the 100th anniversary of Chinese the Communist Party in Beijing on June 28.
Russian President Vladimir Putin watches the launch of a missile during military exercises in the Barents Sea aboard the Pyotr Veliky nuclear missile cruiser on Aug. 17, 2005.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton listen to President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on Oct. 11, 2018. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
Donald Trump talks with journalists during a rally against the Iran nuclear deal in Washington on Sept. 9, 2015. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
A satellite photo from September 16, 2004 depicting what South Korean officials described as "mushroom-shaped clouds" over North Korea's remote northeastern region. (LEE JONG-CHUL/AFP/Getty Images)
Kim Jong Un impersonator Howard X and Donald Trump impersonator Dennis Alan pose for photographers during a visit to Merlion Park in Singapore on June 8. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on Iran's nuclear program at the defence ministry in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2018. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
A man walks past a newspaper featuring a front page story about the summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on a sidewalk in Seoul on Apr. 28. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)
Impersonators of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un pose during the Opening Ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
The full moon rises behind one of the Kremlin ruby stars in Moscow on March 1. During a two-hour speech to a joint sitting of both houses of parliament Russia's President Vladimir Putin claimed his country has developed a new array of nuclear weapons that are invincible. (Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images)
