Australia Boosts Philippine Defense, Complementing U.S. Partnership What if the most important military move in the South China Sea this year didn’t come from Washington but from Canberra? That’s the quiet headline sliding under the radar right now. In early 2026, as tensions simmer from Taiwan’s southern approaches down to the West Philippine Sea, Australia…
The Philippines Didn’t Choose Sides — China Forced Its Hand Did the Philippines really “choose” the United States or did it simply run out of places to stand? That’s the question no one wants to ask out loud. Because once you ask it, the whole “choosing sides” narrative starts to fall apart. And fast. Just…
Marcos: A “Future-Ready” PH–US Alliance Evolving Beyond Defense Eighty years in, this alliance is no longer running on muscle memory. And President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. knows it. Standing at the milestone anniversaries, 80 years of Philippine–US diplomatic relations and 75 years of the Mutual Defense Treaty, Marcos didn’t sound nostalgic. He sounded forward-looking, almost impatient…
The Quiet Expansion — U.S. Army Rotational Force in the Philippines and the Militarization of the First Island Chain Nothing rolled in with fanfare. No dramatic base openings. No headline-grabbing troop numbers. Just a short confirmation, almost easy to miss: the U.S. Army now maintains a rotational force in the Philippines. Quiet. Technical. Bureaucratic-sounding. And…
