Modi annexed Jammu and Kashmir, is it a bold move towards authoritarianism?
“Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders — presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that...
University of the Philippines, Diliman
Indigenous Struggles: A Shortfall of Philippine Democracy
The Philippines opened the 30th Southeast Asian Games this year with a performance celebrating the country’s indigenous cultures. A day earlier,...
The Future of Democracy is Purple
In a world of increasing political polarization, a fast-growing group of people from media and academe are pushing back in the United States in...
Making Sense of Imperial Manila: The Philippine Rural-Urban Divide in the Era of Rodrigo Duterte
The 30th South East Asian Games (SEA Games) hosted by the Philippines in 2019 have caused social cleavages to resurface at a time when the host...
Mayor of Manila: A Portrait of Populism as Performativity
Last September, I started a new job in Manila City. Despite having lived right next to it for all of my adult life, spending most of my waking...
Is orange ever a possibility in Thai politics?
Thailand is the country that has had the most number of coups in modern history. This says a lot about how troubled Thai politics is and how deep...
A Game of (Presidential) Thrones: The Burgeoning Alliances in Venezuela’s Ongoing Political Crisis
Much like the warring families in George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fiction series Game of Thrones, Juan Guaidó and Nicolás Maduro have...
Turkey’s invasion of Syria: A democratic crisis
Ras al-Ayn bombing on October 10, 2019. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. When United States President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of...
In the Philippines, the biggest threat to press freedom is Duterte
President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Ten years ago, on November 23, 2009, 58 people—32 of them journalists—were...