FACTS Asia Program Manager Florence Principe Gamboa, also non-resident Vasey Fellow at Pacific Forum and ARS Research Manager Deryk Baladjay, also Young Leader at Pacific Forum successfully co-authored a contribution for Pacific Forum's Issues & Insights (Vol. 22), with the title Resilient Alliance: Moving the U.S.-Philippines Security Relations Forward. The volume is edited by Dr. Jeffrey Ordaniel and Carl Baker (Pacific Forum).
The co-authored chapter "explores the U.S.- Philippines alliance in three critical respects. First, it explains why the alliance is important and why it will continue to benefit the two countries. Second, it presents an analytical framework originally conceptualized by Victor Cha to show the Philippines’ disposition toward its alliance with Washington, which explains why countries like the Philippines link and delink or hedge against major powers. Finally, it explores what the Philippines and the U.S. can do moving forward. Baladjay and Gamboa argue that, while hedging has been beneficial for the Philippines in dealing with geopolitical uncertainties, the time has come for Manila to decide “whether or not it wants to be a shaper in international relations.”
The edited volume is free and accessible on Pacific Forum's publications webpage.
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