Author: Defenceline Webdesk

When U.S. President Donald Trump made his second state visit to China in May 2026, Xi Jinping escorted him through Beijing’s magisterial Temple of Heaven, where the Ming and Qing emperors performed rites that mediated between heaven and the earthly order. But when these two men with autocratic impulses and outsized egos strolled through the complex, it became not a Temple of Heaven but a Temple of Thymos – a stage for distributing recognition rather than cosmic concerns. Now, the neoclassical architecture of the White House provides the set for their September 23–25 encounter.Readers of The Diplomat can find in…

Since July, China has begun conducting more regularized coast guard patrols in waters east of Taiwan. These operations are, of course, partly connected to recent maritime developments involving Japan and the Philippines. Yet a broader trend is also becoming increasingly visible: the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has stepped up both the scale and intensity of its activities in the airspace and waters east of Taiwan. In addition to continuing its joint combat readiness patrols across the Taiwan Strait median line and into Taiwan’s southwestern airspace, the PLA has noticeably increased reconnaissance and surveillance operations to Taiwan’s east and southeast. On…

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a rebranding of the term “artificial intelligence,” saying during the United Nations General Assembly that from now on, it will be called “super intelligence.” “From this point forward, all of United States’ documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term, ‘super,’ as opposed to ‘artificial’,” he said.Though the rebrand may have been a surprise to many, superintelligence is already an established term in AI literature. It was popularized in philosopher Nick Bostrom’s 2014 bestseller Superintelligence, which defines the term as “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of…

Much fanfare accompanied the two-day (September 12-13) 2026 BRICS Summit in New Delhi. The Indian government shut down the capital through road closures, dignitaries made grand statements – including, notably, one by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the “old leaders” (the G7) are being replaced by “new engines of economic growth” (BRICS countries).  The grouping of an expanded 11 full members (Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates) issued a 140-point declaration on topics from Bretton Woods to conflict in the Middle East. Indian Member of Parliament Vikramjit Singh Sahney…

Ukraine’s artillery brigades are choosing unguided 155 mm artillery shells over guided rounds such as the M982 Excalibur, and shifting the accuracy work onto the gun itself. The commander of Ukraine’s 7th Artillery Brigade – known as “Gregit” – Lt. Colonel Vitaliy Kornienko (call sign “Hephaestus”) set out the practice in an interview with Oboronka, describing how his unit combines first-person-view (FPV) drones with tube artillery. The pattern carries directly into Pakistan Army procurement, which is fielding comparable 155 mm/52-calibre platforms and building out its own artillery ammunition base. What the Russia-Ukraine War Settled About Drones and Artillery Since beginning…

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’” He has publicly called for Seoul’s participation in the U.S. war with Iran since March, and in this post, he explicitly expressed his dissatisfaction with South Korea’s refusal to participate. Trump also attached consequences: in the same post, he announced the scaling down of annual South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises and expressed a strong affinity with North Korean leader Kim…

BELFAST — US President Donald Trump sat next to the leaders of Denmark and its territory Greenland today to sign a new Arctic security agreement based on strengthening “common deterrence,” defusing at least for the time being a tense standoff amid Washington’s threat to annex the semi-autonomous island. The joint pact was signed by Trump, Prime Minister of Greenland Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a ceremony in New York, immediately after Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly. “Today we are signing an even bigger and better agreement” than the 1951 defense treaty between the Kingdom…

Every five years, the Australian Treasury releases its Intergenerational Report (IGR). The report is designed to look at the major structural changes and challenges the country faces to understand how Australia can best navigate the world in the coming decades. This week, the Treasury released its latest report. It argued that despite significant global changes, Australia remains relatively well placed to maintain its prosperity, but its major advantages cannot be taken for granted.  The report highlighted five transitions that will shape the coming decades: artificial intelligence, geopolitical fragmentation, the energy transition, an aging population, and the transformation of Australia’s industrial…

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is eliminating civilian staff roles for a service-run organization dedicated to studying Chinese airpower, but is not closing shop on the research entity, according to an Air Force spokesperson.  In a statement to Breaking Defense, the spokesperson said that in response to “an ongoing civilian restructure within” the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command, civilian staff “will no longer be assigned to China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI).” The spokesperson added that CASI’s “mission continues” and will be executed by “leveraging assigned military service members to accomplish its objectives.” Affected civilian employees “will continue in…

The world is once again in the midst of summit season. The conclusion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan at the start of September was followed by the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India last week. This week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York is likely to be overshadowed by the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump on September 24. And before the year’s end, the APEC Summit will also take place in China in November followed by the United States hosting the G20 Summit in December.  Each of…