Buildings and infrastructure as modern-day totems
A FRIEND asked me about what I thought about President Duterte’s “Build Build Build” program. I answered that aside from its obvious practical benefits,...
Debt traps
POLITICAL analyst Darren Lim and Victor Ferguson recently wrote an article for Rappler titled “Lessons for Manila from Sri Lanka’s ‘Debt-Trap’ Experience.”
Lim and Ferguson...
Geo-economic dimensions of the US-China trade war
WHAT does China’s One Road One Belt (OROB) initiative and the United States’ America First policy have in common?
They are both geo-economic tools designed...
Trade war blues
IF YOU follow financial news then one of the biggest news in recent weeks is the trade war between the United States and China.
There...
The return of US-Mexican conflict?
FOR MORE than a century, Mexico and the United States have been at peace (or relative tranquility depending on how you look at it),...
Meet Mexico’s anti-Duterte
MEXICO’S Presidential election is coming up, and the candidate favored to win the race is a man named Andres Manuel Obrador.
The best way to...
What does China want from Southeast Asian waters?
IN A NOT-to-recent speech in Davao City, President Duterte said about China: “China, for all of its, whatever, posturing there is, is also interested...
What did the Singapore summit accomplish?
SO THE Trump-Kim summit is finished, and now that the celebrations are over, it seems that it was more or less a success. According...
ASEAN matters
IN AN article written for the Straits Times, former Singaporean permanent foreign affairs secretary Bilahari Kausikan wrote:
“Asean centrality nevertheless preserves some autonomy in the...
War and destruction? No, just posturing
SO ONE of the biggest foreign policy news last week was US President Donald Trump’s order to cancel or at least postpone his historic...