PH: Stratbase, CIPE (NED), and the Belt and Road Initiative

07-31-2024: If it’s bad business, it’s bad for the Philippines (archived)

Our organization, the Stratbase ADR Institute, received an award from the prestigious Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC. We were recognized for our research, advocacy, and strategic communication on four infrastructure projects entered into by the Philippines, during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, under the Belt and Road Initiative of China.

The Philippines has currently withdrawn from the Belt and Road Initiative and the current administration has been careful to consider other partners aside from China.

Victor Andres “Dindo” C. Manhit is the president of the Stratbase ADR Institute.

Just like the National Endowment for Democracy, CIPE has been scrubbing their website. Search for the Philippines and click on the results. Most of the links are missing.

Related:

Read More »

Film fundraiser for Myanmar IDPs in Thailand, Sponsored by the U.K. Government


Min Maw Kun at Federation Square in Melbourne. Credit: Supplied/Min Maw Kun (source)

Film fundraiser for Myanmar IDPs in Chiang Mai, Thailand

A film fundraising event for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar, who have had to flee their homes due to conflict, was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Monday. The films “Wide Awake,” starring Min Maw Kunn, and “Together,” starring members of the resistance to the 2021 military coup, were screened at the Chiang Mai University (CMU) Faculty of Mass Communications.

“All of the costs [associated with the film screenings] were proudly covered by Together Productions. One hundred percent of all proceeds from [the] event will be donated to IDPs,” said Min Maw Kun, a Myanmar actor and musician.

Related:

Read More »

Fico sees coup plot behind protests, but Slovaks take to the streets anyway

Fico sees coup plot behind protests, but Slovaks take to the streets anyway

Prime Minister Robert Fico keeps claiming that Slovakia is facing an orchestrated attempt to destabilise his government, alleging that opposition-linked NGOs are plotting a “Slovak Maidan” as part of a broader, foreign-backed strategy. Citing a secret service (SIS) report he described as evidence-based, Fico issued a stark warning during a press conference on Wednesday, following a cabinet meeting.

Read More »

Israel’s foreign minister is looking for a way to spend $150 million on hasbara

Israel’s foreign minister is looking for a way to spend $150 million on hasbara

Sa’ar insisted on the major budget increase when he and his United Right Party joined the governing coalition last month and he became foreign minister. At the time, Sa’ar said the budget will go towards “media campaigns abroad, in the foreign press, on social media, and more,” including “concentrated activity on U.S. campuses to change their attitude towards Israel and its policies.”

Read More »

The marriage of RAND and SeaLight

A Caricature of Marxism and Imperialist Economism: Monism And Dualism

Slowly, but surely, I’m going through both of the following RAND publications. I just recently noticed that “Understanding and Countering China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations” was posted over at SeaLight on the 12th of December. Ray Powell, from SeaLight, is quoted at least 14 times in the first publication. So far, I’ve seen RAND “recommend” the same tactics as they’ve deployed in the Philippines; civilian society organizations, embedded journalism, information warfare, influencers, and online trolls.

USS Beloit (LCS-29). Photo by EJ Hersom.

I’ve always known that they would try to expand their information operation to the other countries that are in ASEAN, just by following the SeaLight podcast. If not their information operation, regime change and terrorism (in Balochistan and Myanmar). I’ve also noticed that Powell has been referring to the Philippines’ “transparency initiative” as “non-violent resistance,” lately (RAND refers to it as “assertive transparency”). Ironic, considering that they’ve already succeeded in overthrowing the government of Bangladesh and are now attempting it in Cambodia, India and Pakistan. For those who don’t know about the regime change asset Gene Sharp and his neoliberal “nonviolence,” see the links on this page. Unfortunately, I don’t have as much time to dedicate to this right now due to other obligations.

Understanding and Countering China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations | RAND

How the United States Can Support Allied and Partner Efforts to Counter China in the Gray Zone: Affirmative Engagement | RAND

RAND and SeaLight document (work in progress)

PART 2

Part 3a: RAND and SeaLight – Taiwan Relations Act

RAND and SeaLight Part 3b: Four Ways China Is Growing Its Media Influence in Southeast Asia

Marcos Says Philippines Won’t Send Warships After China Clashes

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his nation won’t deploy Navy warships to the South China Sea in response to recent clashes with Beijing in disputed waters.

Marcos Says Philippines Won’t Send Warships After China Clashes

Previously:

Philippines to match China’s gray zone tactics in South China Sea

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

Syrian Army informs officers of regime change – Reuters + More

Syrian Army informs officers of regime change – Reuters

Related:

Brian Berletic on the situation in Syria:

What is happening in Syria is a major loss for the Syrian people and their allies, including Russia and Iran and ultimately both China and the rest of the multipolar world. It is a reminder that the US and its proxies remain the greatest threat to human peace and prosperity on planet Earth today – a potent danger that should not be underestimated. Not only has the US maintained a large army of terrorists all along Syria’s borders, it has maintained significant control over global information space poisoning entire regions of the planet against their own best interests. While US industry and military power fades, it has maintained its ability to politically interfere and capture entire populations – not through any particular strength, but from a fundamental lack of action from the rest of the world in recognizing information space as the key to national security in the 21st century. Even today, most of the world has surrendered its information space to Silicon Valley and the US State Department. No matter how many tanks you have, if the US can convince your population not to man them or to point their guns in the opposite direction, you still lose.

Read More »

An Introduction to Fifth Generation Warfare

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love 5GW

We type these words travelling through the Swiss Alps on high-speed rail. As the world becomes smaller, we at The Radio Research Group have witnessed firsthand how nearly everything we knew about modern conflict is changing, under the shadow of Fifth Generation Warfare. The incredible, exponential, accelerating pace of technology has overturned centuries of standard operating procedure. Diplomats and military leaders alike have been thrust into uncharted domains, disrupted by an invisible enemy that makes us question our reality.

An Introduction to Fifth Generation Warfare

Related:

5GW: 2012 NDAA – Propaganda – MISO – InfoOps – PsyOps

Cambridge Analytica and the Right-Wing Populist Movements

Embedded Journalism, Media Manipulation & Apathy

Memetic Warfare