On the Current Situation around and within the Philippines |
On the Current Situation around and within the Philippines
The Philippines is more of an object than a subject of the political processes unfolding in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, everything connected with this country, one way or another, is not only under close observation by leading regional players but also involves their participation to various extents.
The question of control over the Philippines is becoming acute once again
And today, as global political processes shift to the Indo-Pacific region, especially to the Southeast Asian subregion, the Philippines once again finds itself in the spotlight of current leading players. Moreover, it happens in a specific way: former enemies, the United States and Japan, are now Manila’s allies, while the United States and China have turned from former allies into, to put it mildly, opponents. Amidst renewed tensions in Japanese–Chinese relations, the military-political alliance between Tokyo and Washington retains its strategic significance. At the same time, the Philippines, as a sovereign state and a member of both the United Nations and the regional organisation ASEAN, is once again becoming the object of increased attention from key international actors. Their interest is focused on the domestic political processes taking place in the country.
Transformation of the domestic political situation in the Philippines
The rivalry among leading players for influence over the Philippines significantly shapes its current domestic political agenda, stimulating the struggle between political clans that view differently the country’s due positioning amid the deteriorating situation in Southeast Asia. In this regard, a landmark event was the formation in 2016 of the ‘Duterte clan’, which interrupted the undivided dominance of alternating pro-American political groups on the Philippines’ domestic political scene. This happened at a moment when the question of the country’s foreign policy orientation became acute once again.
It should be noted, however, that........