Episode 9: Duterte's foreign policy, Part 1

This episode is the first in a series where we will look at President Duterte’s foreign policy. Many analysts say that it is in total disarray. They cite the strained relations with the EU and US for his war on drugs, our inability to press home the advantage after winning our arbitration case against China in the Hague back in July 2016. But are they right? Does the president’s foreign policy lack cohesion and clarity? [Errata: it is mentioned at the start of the clip that China will be represented by Pres. Xi at the summit, when it is Premier Li Keqiang who is attending on his behalf. Sr Assoc Justice Carpio was referred to as a "former" justice when he is in fact a current one.]



Get the show notes to this podcast here.

As I pick up this pen...

It was November 2008 when I first took up blogging in this space, right after Sen. Barrack Obama's election as America's 44th president.

How times have changed.

We now are witnessing the dawn of a new era in America, and the world undoubtedly.

The election of Donald J. Trump to succeed Mr. Obama heralds a new direction for America.

From an outward-looking, open, diverse, collaborative, and multilateralist polity, to one that would have an inward-looking, isolationist, and competitive/winner-take-all mentality.

It comes on the heels of the Brexit vote in the UK and the rise of far-right parties in Western Europe. 

Having taken a break from blogging in the past two years, I feel the need to start writing again.

Now more than ever, the need to find new, better ideas to deal with complex, long-standing problems is emerging.