The Diplomat

The Diplomat is a Washington D.c.-based digital news magazine covering politics, society, and security across the Indo-Pacific region. Founded in Australia in 2001 by Minh Bui Jones, David Llewellyn-Smith, and Sung Lee, it transitioned from print to online in 2009 and now reaches more than 2 million monthly unique visitors. The publication is owned by MHT Corporation, a Japanese information services company based in Tokyo. In April 2026, The Diplomat framed Johor's data-centre water dispute under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, setting a legal and human-rights frame around infrastructure-driven resource stress .

The Diplomat is widely regarded as the English-language publication of record for Indo-Pacific affairs. Its team of specialist editors covers Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Oceania. The outlet has tracked Iran's information-operations posture, reporting on Chinese state media during the 2026 Iran conflict and covering the diplomatic fallout for US partners in the region .

For Lowdown's data-centres topic, The Diplomat is the primary source for Southeast Asian regulatory responses to data-centre expansion, particularly water rights, land access, and social licence to operate. Its human-rights framing of the Johor case is significant because it links corporate infrastructure decisions to international accountability standards, a frame increasingly adopted by civil-society groups across the region.