THERE are absurd ideas, there are dangerous ideas, and then there are ideas so alarmingly reckless that one wonders if their authors have ever opened a history book or even…
WHEN great powers squabble, small states pay the price. And in today’s Asia, the spat is no longer a polite diplomatic dance. It’s an increasingly public, sharp-edged confrontation between Japan…
ASEAN today finds itself in an uncomfortable but unavoidable position: seated squarely at the fault line of U.S.–China rivalry. The question often asked — Is ASEAN being forced to choose…
THE world’s two superpowers have now formalized what many already sensed: The United States and China are in a long-term, structural rivalry. Yet both sides, one through the RAND’s recent…
Yesterday, October 25, 2025, the foreign and economic ministers of ASEAN gathered in Kuala Lumpur for the first-ever joint ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM-AEM). The event seemed routine at first glance.…
A FEW weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking at an international conference in Phnom Penh hosted by the Royal Academy of Cambodia and organized by the International Relations…
THE world’s attention is once again on the Philippines, not for its beaches or beauty, but for its geography. As The Diplomat aptly observed in its October 2025 article, “The…
ON Sept. 27, 2025, I was invited to speak at the symposium “Retrospect and Prospect: Fifty Years of Philippines-China Relations” held at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. The event, co-organized…
So here we are again, folks. Manila is now negotiating a defense cooperation pact with Ukraine—yes, that Ukraine, the one currently locked in a full-blown war with Russia, backed to…
Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro’s latest pronouncement is a textbook case of speaking loudly while missing the point entirely. Sadly, some nuances are lost in play-by-play. Aren’t senior officials of Marcos…