Missiles, markets, and massacres: Balikatan, ASEAN, and the war logic of US imperial decline*
As regional leaders convene under the Philippine chairmanship’s theme,“Navigating Our Future, Together,” the summit presents itself as a forum for peace, economic resilience, and regional stability. Yet beneath this diplomatic language lies a deeper contradiction: ASEAN’s increasingly visible accommodation to U.S.-aligned security and monetary frameworks, even as the region claims strategic autonomy.


















