Through the Tempest: The Philippines’ Defense Posture in Troubled Waters

Domestic challenges threaten to derail the military’s efforts to upgrade its capabilities and reorient itself toward new strategic priorities

By: Georgi Engelbrecht

U.S. Marine Corps. Photo by Cpl. Keegan Jones

As U.S. President Donald Trump was meeting China’s Xi Jinping in South Korea last week, Manila was watching anxiously, worried about what the future of China-U.S. relations could mean for the stormy waters of the South China Sea. With Chinese vessels pressing ever deeper into the Philipp…