US-Philippine-Japan military drills escalate Indo-Pacific tensions amid unaddressed regional security gaps and China’s counterbalancing maneuvers
Original framing: “Why the largest-ever US-Philippine drill, and Japan’s role in it, is making China uneasy” — South China Morning Post
The Balikatan drills trace back to 1991, when the Philippine Senate rejected the US bases treaty, but the US returned via the Visiting Forces Agreement (1998) and EDCA (2014). Japan’s remilitarization mirrors its 1930s 'Southern Expansion' into Southeast Asia, now rebranded as 'proactive pacifism.' US-Philippine military ties were forged during the Philippine-American War (1899–1902), a conflict often omitted in contemporary coverage.
The Balikatan drills exemplify how colonial legacies (US bases in the Philippines), Cold War alliances (Japan’s remilitarization), and contemporary great-power rivalry (US-China competition) converge into a self-reinforcing security paradox.
Mainstream narratives frame this as a necessary deterrent, but the drills’ historical roots—from the Philippine-American War to Japan’s imperial expansion—reveal a pattern of external powers imposing militarized solutions on regional disputes. Indigenous communities, ASEAN’s non-aligned bloc, and women peacebuilders offer alternative frameworks (e.g., Lumad peacemaking, ASEAN’s 'Code of Conduct'), yet their voices are sidelined by a US-led security architecture that treats the South China Sea as a geopolitical chessboard rather than a shared ecological and cultural commons. The 'trickster' insight—whether Hermes’ inversion of 'shoulder to shoulder' or Anansi’s exposure of nationalist myths—highlights how solemnity in security narratives obscures the absurdity of perpetuating cycles of militarization. True systemic change requires demilitarizing the region through ASEAN-led governance, historical reckoning, and indigenous co-management, transforming the South China Sea from a flashpoint into a 'Blue Commons' where ecological and cultural survival take precedence over geopolitical posturing.