January

The Diplomat doesn’t generally publish celebrity news, but this particular case – the suicide of famed actor Lee Sun-kyun – touched on a number of important social trends in South Korea: the extreme power of prosecutors, a blame-first approach toward drug abusers, and a lack of medical care to address substance abuse.

February

Our top story for February was a preview of public interest in growing friction – and even clashes – between China and Philippines over disputed territories in the South China Sea. The potential for a conflict between China and the Philippines, a U.S. ally, raises the stakes on each sides’ maneuvers in the South China Sea.

March

North Korea – and especially its security cooperation with Russia – was a subject of much attention this year. However, our most-read article on North Korea struck a more hopeful note, detailing comments from North Korean leadership on the potential for a “new future” in Japan-North Korea relations. That didn’t pan out in 2024, but underlines the potential for a sudden shift in Pyongyang to open up new space for diplomacy.

April

While political contestation in other countries – like Bangladesh and South Korea – made international headlines, in Pakistan the continuing conflict between former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI and the ruling coalition, backed by the military, largely simmered under the surface. However, Pakistan’s move to implement a de facto ban on X (formerly Twitter), followed later by broader internet restrictions was a sign of the unease the government feels.

May

It’s another North Korea-focused piece, this time zeroing in on the potential for a rift between China and Russia in terms of managing Pyongyang’s nuclear program. China’s ambivalence toward the North Korea-Russia security partnership has been widely remarked upon, and this piece gets at one of the core reasons for the divergence: Beijing and Moscow have different perspectives on – and different appetites for – Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

June

This article captures the geopolitical implications of another worrying trend in Pakistan: the sharp uptick in terrorist attacks, particularly those targeting Chinese nationals or Chinese-funded projects. China is increasingly open about its discontent toward Islamabad over the worsening security situation.

July

Another major trend of 2024 was the reshuffling of multinational groupings designed to represent the Global South. The trillion dollar question, of course, is whether these groups will actually have a lasting impact on the international order – and what benefits they bring to prospective members.

August

China’s strained relations with the United States and European countries are well known by this point. This article tackled that subject by looking at a single, but highly revelatory data point: international flights from Western airlines to and from China. The gist: COVID-19 border closures decimated flights to China, and they have never fully recovered. In fact, flights are trending down from already low numbers.

Note: The single-biggest news story of August 2024 was the fall of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh. But The Diplomat published a wealth of stories on this seminal event, so no one article topped the charts. Still, it’s worth highlighting our most-read article on the protests that lead to Hasina’s ouster: The Quota Reform Protest in Bangladesh Is Much More Than It Seems. The article was published before Hasina fled the country, but was prescient in reviewing how her heavy-handed response galvanized protests to seek regime change.

September

The military aspect of the China-U.S. competition is always of great interest to Diplomat readers, given the world-changing ramifications of a clash between the two largest economies. This piece details increased U.S. Air Force deployments to Southeast Asia – presumably with an eye toward China and the South China Sea.

October

Women’s issues don’t always attract the most attention, but this particular piece struck a nerve by addressing the nexus between Korea’s “deeply entrenched misogyny” and technological advancements. It also explores the deep political polarization between South Korean women, who strongly skew progressive, and men, who are increasingly embracing far right ideology.

November

In a year of monumental shake-ups in the Middle East – Israel’s continuing war on Gaza, which expanded to Lebanon, as well as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria – the story of Iraq quietly backing out of an oil-for-infrastructure deal with China went largely unheralded. But Diplomat readers noticed, making this story on shifting attitudes toward China our most-read for November.

December

Another under-the-radar story has been Myanmar’s continuing civil war. This year, The Diplomat’s Rajeev Bhattacharyya paid a rare visit to territory newly captured by the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed organization, from the military. This article on how rampant smuggling – not of drugs or arms, but of basic necessities – is keeping communities alive in areas of northwestern Myanmar was both the most-read of his reported series, and the top piece for The Diplomat in December.

Note: As with Hasina’s fall in Bangladesh, the brief stint of martial law in South Korea – and President Yoon Suk-yeol’s subsequent impeachment – was undoubtedly the biggest news story of the month, but reader numbers were spread across our many articles covering these events. Two scene-setter articles stood out, traffic-wise: ‘Kim Keon-hee Risk’ Is a Ticking Time Bomb for South Korea’s President and Why Is South Korea’s President Yoon So Unpopular? Both of these analyses were published well before the martial law declaration but explained the political dynamics that would eventually lead Yoon down that path.