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The Syndrome of Trembling Pens

How prison is constructed in the writer’s mind before the gavel falls

latest 10

The Diplomat

Sebastian Strangio

Indonesian Criminal Code Comes Into Effect Amid Civil Society Criticisms

The new code, passed in 2022, has replaced the colonial-era penal code introduced by the Dutch before 1945.

latest 10

The Diplomat

Sebastian Strangio

Mainland Southeast Asia: What to Watch in 2026

The past year has been eventful and at times tumultuous for the subregion. Expect more of the same over the coming year.

latest 20

The Diplomat

Sebastian Strangio

What to Make of Australia’s Youth Social Media Ban?

Australia is often caught between two contradictory impulses. The first is its desire to be viewed as a creative middle power – to advance positive...

previous day 30

The Diplomat

Grant Wyeth

The Modi Juggernaut Was Unstoppable in 2025

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) showed no signs of losing electoral popularity in 2025, the eleventh year of BJP rule...

previous day 10

The Diplomat

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

What Will 2026 Bring for China-US Relations?

The latest U.S. National Security Strategy offers an instructive snapshot of where China-U.S. competition now stands. While the document continues...

previous day 10

The Diplomat

Dingding Chen And Yingfan Chen

Thailand Releases 18 Cambodian POWs

After five months of tortuous negotiations and broken promises amid an undeclared war, 18 Cambodian prisoners of war (POWs) walked across the Thai...

previous day 10

The Diplomat

Luke Hunt

Central Asia’s Mounting Debt Burden: Risks and Policy Implications

Central Asia is entering a period of heightened fiscal vulnerability as public debt continues to rise across much of the region. The World Bank’s...

previous day 10

The Diplomat

Sobir Kurbanov And Vlad Paddack

What’s at Stake for the China-South Korea Summit: Avoiding a 2nd THAAD Dispute

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s upcoming trip to China from January 4-7 – including a summit and state dinner with Chinese President Xi...

previous day 9

The Diplomat

Yoonki Lee

Trump, Honduras, and the Monroe Doctrine 2.0

The outcome of Honduras’ recent presidential election, in which Nasry Asfura was declared the winner, has been described as both a domestic...

previous day 10

The Diplomat

Juan Fernando Herrera Ramos

2025: A Challenging Year for India’s Diplomacy

2025 was a challenging year for India on the foreign relations front. Ties with strategic partners, such as the United States, frayed, and those...

previous day 6

The Diplomat

Sudha Ramachandran

Pakistan’s Worsening Threat Landscape in 2025

Pakistan’s internal security challenges multiplied in 2025 amid a deteriorating relationship with the Taliban regime over Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan...

previous day 7

The Diplomat

Abdul Basit

German Diplomacy at a Time of Japan-China Tensions

The rupture in Japan-China relations in the wake of Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s remark that if China were to employ military force...

previous day 7

The Diplomat

Morii Yuichi

Can Crisis Preparedness Information Move Taiwanese From Awareness to Action?

Taiwan’s government has in recent years stepped up efforts to strengthen national defense, societal resilience, and risk communication amid growing...

previous day 9

The Diplomat

Kuan-Chen Lee

‘Respectful Responder’: How India Is Reshaping Regional Security Partnership

In the last week of December, India announced a $450 million “reconstruction package” for Sri Lanka to help the island nation recover from the...

previous day 7

The Diplomat

Shreya Upadhyay

The Trial of Abe’s Assassin Is a Test of Takaichi’s Appetite for Political Reform

The Yamagami Tetsuya trial, which began in October after he admitting to killing former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in 2022, has increased anxieties...

previous day 8

The Diplomat

Peter Chai And Charles Crabtree

Why China Is Not Betting on Its Relationship With the Kuomintang

On December 29, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China announced the commencement of a large-scale military exercise around Taiwan. While the...

previous day 6

The Diplomat

Zhenlin Cui

With Khaleda Zia’s Passing, an Important Era in Bangladeshi Politics Has Ended

With Khaleda Zia’s Passing, an Important Era in Bangladeshi Politics Has Ended

Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia breathed her last at 6 am on December 30 at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital. Zia’s passing after a...

tuesday 20

The Diplomat

Shafi Md Mostofa

Samoa Just Had An Election. Was China the Real Winner?

When Samoa turned red at the ballot box in August 2025, it wasn’t just a political swing – it was a geopolitical shockwave. Susuga...

tuesday 10

The Diplomat

Anne-Marie Brady

Does It Matter That Trump Invited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to the 2026 G20 Summit?

Amid the pre-Christmas lull, U.S. President Donald Trump held phone calls with his Kazakh and Uzbek counterparts, capping off a year of increased...

tuesday 9

The Diplomat

Catherine Putz

2025 in South Asia: A Year of Economic and Political Shocks

Every year is eventful in South Asia. But 2025 wasn’t just turbulent; it destabilized the region structurally. This was due to the convergence of...

tuesday 2

The Diplomat

Rathindra Kuruwita

Outlook: Geopolitical Trends and Global Diplomacy in 2026

Outlook: Geopolitical Trends and Global Diplomacy in 2026

The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their...

tuesday 7

The Diplomat

Mercy A. Kuo

Previewing North Korea’s Grand Strategy for 2026 

The year 2026 is set to be a pivotal year for North Korea, defined by a dual strategy: the domestic finalization of its nuclear status through a...

tuesday 2

The Diplomat

Mitch Shin

2025: A Trumpian Year of Geopolitical Shifts in Asia

2025: A Trumpian Year of Geopolitical Shifts in Asia

In this episode of The Diplomat’s Asia Geopolitics podcast, Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) and Katie Putz (@LadyPutz) reflect on 2025, a year dominated by...

tuesday 10

The Diplomat

Ankit Panda And Catherine Putz

China’s Military Is Planning for Combat in Latin America

On December 19 , an affiliate of the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) ran a story about a recent Chinese military wargame in the city of...

tuesday 7

The Diplomat

R. Evan Ellis

South Asia’s Strategic Shift: How India Lost the Diplomatic Initiative With Its Neighbors

India is facing a severe strain on its relations across all its borders. New Delhi, the economic giant of South Asia, is dealing with a...

tuesday 1

The Diplomat

Syed Basim Raza

2025: Another Bad Year for India’s Women, Dalits, and Religious Minorities

On Christmas Day this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the morning service at the Cathedral Church of the Redemption in the capital, New...

tuesday 1

The Diplomat

Kavita Chowdhury

The Japan-China Joint Communiqué and the Question of Taiwan

The Japan-China Joint Communiqué and the Question of Taiwan

Tensions are rising in China-Japan relations over Taiwan. It started with Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s statement to the Diet on November 7,...

29.12.2025 20

The Diplomat

Inoue Masaya

India’s Bangladesh Dilemma: Strategic Partner or Political Liability?

India’s Bangladesh Dilemma: Strategic Partner or Political Liability?

For much of the last decade, Bangladesh was celebrated as the most successful example of India’s “ Neighborhood First ” policy — a stable,...

29.12.2025 10

The Diplomat

Swaran Singh

What Will Drive Mongolian Politics and Economy in 2026?

What Will Drive Mongolian Politics and Economy in 2026?

2025 was a tumultuous year for Mongolia’s politics and economic endeavors. With increasing numbers of intermittent protests in the nation’s...

29.12.2025 2

The Diplomat

Bolor Lkhaajav

North Korean Leader Inspects Building of Nuclear Submarine

According to North Korea’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 25, Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea,...

29.12.2025 3

The Diplomat

Mitch Shin

Jayalakshmi K on Why Delhi Becomes a Toxic Gas Chamber Every Winter

Air pollution in Delhi and its suburbs, which together comprise the National Capital Region (NCR), has been alarming in recent weeks. The problem...

29.12.2025 3

The Diplomat

Sudha Ramachandran

3rd Cambodia-Thailand Ceasefire Holds Amid Talks in China

A ceasefire brokered over Christmas between Cambodia and Thailand appeared to be holding since it came into force midday December 27 as talks aimed...

29.12.2025 6

The Diplomat

Luke Hunt

2025: The Military Emerges Stronger in Pakistan’s Power Equation

2025: The Military Emerges Stronger in Pakistan’s Power Equation

As 2025 draws to a close, Pakistan’s domestic political landscape reflects relative stability in civil-military relations. However, this calm is...

29.12.2025 4

The Diplomat

Umair Jamal

From ‘Lost Decades’ to Populist Surge: Japan’s Unexpected Political Shift

For a long time, Japan’s political system was treated as a success story in comparison with other democratic states. During the 2010s, while...

29.12.2025 9

The Diplomat

Jio Kamata

Why Mobs in Bangladesh Attacked the Offices of Daily Star and Prothom Alo

Zyma Islam, a senior reporter in the Daily Star, a leading English daily in Bangladesh, was at her work station in the newspaper’s office building...

29.12.2025 3

The Diplomat

Mubashar Hasan

What the Descent of India’s Biggest Airline Means for Its Booming Aviation Sector

The recent crisis involving IndiGo has exposed deep structural problems in India’s aviation sector. When the airline cancelled thousands of flights...

29.12.2025 3

The Diplomat

Sangita Dutta Gupta, M Manjula, And Tania Ghosh

China’s Military Reforms Since 2015: Is Time on Its Side?

After several years of planning and doctrinal experimentation, on the last day of 2015, the Chinese armed forces (the People’s Liberation Army,...

29.12.2025 3

The Diplomat

Dennis J. Blasko

Australia, Japan Establish Strategic Defense Cooperation Framework

Australia, Japan Establish Strategic Defense Cooperation Framework

Trust is now the most highly valued commodity in international relations. The global architecture that sought to govern relations between states is...

29.12.2025 6

The Diplomat

Grant Wyeth

2025 Recap: Five Key Developments in China’s Foreign Information Influence 

2025 Recap: Five Key Developments in China’s Foreign Information Influence 

In 2025, Beijing’s foreign information influence operations grew more sophisticated and insidious, leveraging emerging technologies, global...

29.12.2025 1

The Diplomat

Sarah Cook

TRACECA Is Back: Kazakhstan and the Reconfiguration of Eurasian Trade Routes

TRACECA Is Back: Kazakhstan and the Reconfiguration of Eurasian Trade Routes

On the eve of entering the second quarter of the 21st century, the Eurasian transport system is undergoing a deep transformation. The ongoing war...

29.12.2025 2

The Diplomat

Timur Serikuly