Maritime clashes between China and the Philippines over contested waters in the South China Sea threaten the balance of power in the Pacific and may draw in the United States.
Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst at RAND and professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the confrontations between China and the Philippines over their competing claims in the South China Sea and the consequences for the United States.
The Philippines’ parliamentary elections reflect yet another vote between dynastic political families, but the outcome still has implications for Manila’s foreign policy towards Washington and Beijing.
Given his previously untouchable status, the arrest and potential prosecution of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a surprising development.
Despite Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s promises to end the brutal drug war, he has continued the violent policies of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
The Philippines risks losing strategically and economically by oscillating between the United States and China— without securing lasting benefits from either.
In contrast to other Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines has expressly aligned itself with the United States amid rising tensions in the South China Sea.
Manila has fully allied with Washington amid increasingly dangerous standoffs with Beijing in the South China Sea, heightening the prospect of a wider war.
Disputes over overlapping exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea have intensified in recent decades, while the territorial row over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea dates back to the nineteenth century.
Timelineby Beina Xu, Eleanor Albert, Lindsay Maizland and Clara Fong May 22, 2024
The success of the U.S.-Japan-Philippines trilateral summit underscored the Joe Biden administration’s dedication to building partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, but Southeast Asian nations are less interested.
Rwanda marks thirty years since its genocide against the Tutsis; U.S. President Joe Biden hosts the first trilateral leaders’ summit with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.; music fans celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Swedish pop group ABBA’s Eurovision win; and Ekrem İmamoğlu is elected mayor of Istanbul, in a rebuke to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party.
Unlike other Southeast Asian leaders, President Marcos Jr. has chosen to explicitly align the Philippines with the United States and confront China more directly.
Most Southeast Asian governments have issued muted statements regarding Israel's war with Hamas, except for Indonesia and Malaysia, the two largest Muslim-majority countries in the region.
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