Author: Defenceline Webdesk

In late August, BBC Uzbek broke the news that an Uzbek professor working in Kazakhstan had been arrested nearly two months prior on allegations of espionage. Very little is known about the case of Dr. Ikboljon Qoraboyev, a 46-year-old international relations professor at Maksut Narikbayev University in Astana, originally from Andijan, Uzbekistan.  Questions from the BBC Uzbek and other media outlets to both Kazakh and Uzbek authorities have yielded silence in answer. When Vlast, an independent Kazakh media outlet, asked Maksut Narikbayev University (MNU) about Qoraboyev, the university distanced itself from the professor, stating that he “is not currently a…

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln yesterday docked in Thailand after more than nine months at sea, a period marked by reports of deteriorating conditions on board and the poor mental health of its sailors. The nuclear-powered vessel arrived at Laem Chabang port yesterday morning and will remain there for five days while its 5,000-odd personnel rest and recuperate in the nearby city of Pattaya. The Abraham Lincoln spent a total of 286 days at sea, taking part in the U.S. naval blockade and combat operations in the war with Iran, setting a modern-day deployment record. It has since…

Mohan Malik is a veteran China-Asia analyst and military strategist who has advised senior brass on geopolitics at the U.S. Defense Department’s Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and is a former director of Defence Studies at Deakin University in Australia. Malik spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt, his former student, about how China, Asia, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are shaping up as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares for the mid-term elections and as the world marks 25 years since the 9/11 attacks that spawned the Global War on Terror. Also known as the 9/11 Wars, the…

MHT Corporation, a Tokyo-based language services company founded in 1990, is looking for a Multilingual Translation Project Coordinator to join its team on a part-time or contract basis. The successful candidate will oversee translation projects involving languages outside MHT’s core Japanese-English and English-Japanese business. Working with translators and other language professionals, the coordinator will manage projects from initial assignment through delivery, helping to ensure that work is completed accurately, efficiently, and on schedule. This position would suit someone who enjoys working with languages, is highly organized, and is comfortable managing several projects and priorities at the same time. Requirements Applicants…

LYNN, Mass.—Rosie the robot and her automated compatriot Thomas are the stars of GE Aerospace’s automated manufacturing line at the company’s factory here. Decked in yellow, the towering machines are reminiscent of the Transformer Bumblebee’s dislocated arms. They move in concert seamlessly to collect tools, machine parts, and assemble components for the T700, which are found in Boeing’s Apache and Sikorsky’s Black Hawks, and, in the future,T408 engines for the Marine Corps’ CH-53-K King Stallion. It’s part of a multiyear $100 million investment in the plant, which is hyperfocused on upgrades—from machines to workflows—to make more engines and deliver them faster. “This…

The International Energy Agency expects Japanese wholesale electricity prices to rise by nearly 40 percent year on year in the second half of 2026, reaching roughly $105 per megawatt-hour. The equivalent increase across the European Union is around 25 percent. Two advanced economies buying from the same global gas market are absorbing the same disruption at very different rates, and the reason has less to do with how much gas Japan imports, than with how the price of that gas is written into contracts. Each market’s exposure is structural. Natural gas accounted for 32 percent of Japan’s power generation in…

The United Nations refugee agency says that it is not involved in Malaysia’s planned repatriation of Myanmar refugees, telling Reuters news agency that the conditions in the country were not in place for their safe return. Last week, the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs announced that it would repatriate 1,476 Myanmar nationals on September 29 aboard two Myanmar Navy warships and a hospital ship. The plan is the first phase of a voluntary repatriation program that will involve around 5,000 refugees, around half of the 10,388 Myanmar nationals currently being held at immigration detention depots. The U.N. High Commission for…

The recent results of Latin America’s electoral super-cycle (2025–2026) suggest that China has become an increasingly important feature of regional politics. While Beijing’s overall popularity in the region is at an all-time high, Latin Americans are voting in candidates who position themselves as U.S.-aligned and, at times, China skeptics.  The ideological pendulum seems to be swinging to the right, and with it, the region’s place in the broader China-U.S. geostrategic competition is shifting. Even Peru and Colombia, where China policy did not initially appear likely to become a decisive electoral fault line, have elected candidates who are expected to distance…

In May, Taiwan was offered no less than four different explanations for the delays in receiving a $14 billion arms package of Patriot PAC-3 interceptors and NASAMS air defense systems.  Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao testified to senators that the United States was “doing a pause” on the arms sale to Taiwan “in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury,” the U.S. military operation in Iran. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio then claimed that the sale was under review, not “paused.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said it wasn’t about Iran at all:…

In “Blood Dawn: World War II and the Making of Modern Asia,” Hans van de Ven, a professor of modern Chinese history at Cambridge University, provides a much-needed Asia-centric focus on World War II. While Western histories of the global conflict center the European theater, and typically mark the war’s beginning with with Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, van de Ven starts with the reordering of Asia under European colonialism in the 19th century, the awakening of new political movements across the region in response, and Japan’s 1937 invasion of China.  World War II remade Asia, and the consequences…