The bigger picture: links, hypotheses, evidence.
Lithuania is ending its decades-old ban on hosting nuclear weapons and running mass evacuation drills to prepare for a possible Russian attack.
This week French officials, European spy chiefs and other reports warned that Russia is preparing more direct action against NATO countries.
Five stories about China this week form one pattern.
NATO jets shot down a drone over Lithuania this week, the first time the alliance has downed an aircraft over a member country's territory.
In the same week, Turkey and Brazil signed a defense cooperation deal, Pakistan ordered drones from a US company, US regulators moved to favor weapons manufacturers in small-business rules, and an Indian bank said defense-company stocks could rise sharply, tied to a large government weapons-spending plan.
In the same week, Italy warned that Russia's campaign of sabotage and disruption against Europe is becoming more dangerous, the European Union's defence chief called for a strong response, and a report described Russia running a messaging campaign to win support from developing nations.
This week the European Union took three steps at once: a plan to standardize how it detects and responds to sabotage blamed on Russia, faster EU rules for member states to jointly buy weapons, and talks for Estonia to join a French nuclear protection arrangement.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed a new mutual-defense pact, but each country sees itself as the senior partner, and none has enough leverage to settle the ranking.
Finland has joined a nuclear deterrence deal with France that lets French fighter jets use Finnish airfields, but without the shared-defense commitments that NATO membership normally requires.
Leaders of the BRICS group of major developing economies met in New Delhi and agreed on artificial intelligence, trade and using currencies other than the dollar, issuing their longest joint statement in years.
This week, several efforts to punish or deter rivals ran into the same problem.
Leaders of the BRICS group of major emerging economies met in New Delhi and agreed to let members settle more trade using their own currencies instead of the US dollar, though no timeline was set.