A Filipino Take on Game of Thrones

The President and Vice President of the Philippines are currently at war with each other in a feud that seeks to burn the entire nation. In 2021, Ferdinand Bong Bong Marcos formed an alliance with Sara Duterte in one of the most peculiar political match ups of the twenty-first century. They would go on to […]

Chinese Military Expansionism in the South China Sea

In 2017, the brinkmanship between Kim Jong-Un and President Trump and the looming prospect of conflict drew a great deal of attention to the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, a less dramatic but nonetheless defining geopolitical struggle has been unfolding further south in the East Asia region, in the South China Sea. At the heart of these […]

Duterte vs. The ICC

An estimated twelve thousand dead; bounties offered for each rebel head; and calls for increased violence, including encouragement to shoot female fighters in the genitals: This is the current state of the Philippines. Since 2016, the nation’s democracy has appeared to be spiraling out of control, as thousands have been slaughtered in President Rodrigo Duterte’s […]

Duterte’s Unlikely Pivot to China

“America has lost,” President Duterte of the Philippines said to China’s top leaders in Beijing this October. As the leader of the oldest American ally in Asia, Rodrigo Duterte’s speech and behavior have been regarded by many as outlandish. Duterte’s anti-American rhetoric has warned international observers about a geopolitical tectonic shift, one in which the Philippines […]