Project MUSE®: Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 25 (2003) through current issueLatest Articles: Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic AffairsTWOProject MUSE®Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs1793-284X0129-797XLatest articles in Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Exit, Voice and Loyalty: The 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978577
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On 12 May 2025, over 68 million Filipinos cast their ballots in the country’s midterm elections. Voters chose candidates for half of the 24-member Senate, district and party-list seats in the House of Representatives and a range of local offices. Typically, these interim elections serve as informal referendums on the incumbent administration’s popularity and whether the president has successfully consolidated power in the legislature and across the provinces. For example, at the 2019 midterms, endorsed candidates of then-President Rodrigo Duterte swept the senatorial contests, marking the first time no opposition senator was elected.1 Midterms can also forecast contenders for the next presidential race.The 2025
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallExit, Voice and Loyalty: The 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USExit, Voice and Loyalty: The 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®290992026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Entrenched Dynastic Power with Progressive Political Momentum: The 2025 House of Representatives Elections in the Philippines
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978578
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Two of the most enduring features of Philippine politics are the dominance of political dynasties and the fluid alliances and shifting loyalties of political actors. This is best seen in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress, where nearly 80 per cent of lawmakers belong to political dynasties.1 For decades, they have monopolized electoral competition through a masterful blend of patronage, clientelist linkages with voters and money politics—a formula that continues to win local elections.2The results of the 2025 midterm elections indicate that political dynasties remain in control, yet there were notable breakthroughs in certain areas where dynastic candidates were defeated by politicians who
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallEntrenched Dynastic Power with Progressive Political Momentum: The 2025 House of Representatives Elections in the Philippines2025-12-23text/htmlen-USEntrenched Dynastic Power with Progressive Political Momentum: The 2025 House of Representatives Elections in the Philippines2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®242672026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Not Everything Is About Her: The Impeachment of Vice-President Sara Duterte and the 2025 Midterm Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978579
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If Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential victory in 2016 ushered in a period of democratic backsliding, halting the liberal democratic order established after the 1986 People Power Revolution, then the election of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice-President Sara Duterte (Rodrigo’s daughter) in 2022 consolidated two dynastic families with authoritarian and populist tendencies. But in a country where political parties are weak, personalities dominate and alliances rarely survive beyond election day, observers quickly wondered how long this new partnership might endure.1 Unsurprisingly, cracks started to appear immediately after the 2022 elections, and by 2024, the UniTeam alliance had unravelled.Rodrigo Duterte
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallNot Everything Is About Her: The Impeachment of Vice-President Sara Duterte and the 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USNot Everything Is About Her: The Impeachment of Vice-President Sara Duterte and the 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®315132026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23The Rise of Uncontested Races: Understanding the Dynamics of the 2025 Midterm Local Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978580
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For many Filipinos, local government is the government. Local officials are the ones whom the public can approach directly and daily; they are the ones who decide the policies that affect most people. According to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), 18,180 local offices were at stake in the 2025 midterm elections.1 This included 254 district representatives,2 82 provincial governors and 82 vice governors, 840 provincial board members, 149 city mayors and 149 vice mayors, 1,690 city councillors, 1,493 municipal mayors and 1,493 vice mayors, and 11,948 municipal councillors. The average voter had to decide 15 local positions.3 As such, voters must carefully weigh which candidates are best suited for each office.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallThe Rise of Uncontested Races: Understanding the Dynamics of the 2025 Midterm Local Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USThe Rise of Uncontested Races: Understanding the Dynamics of the 2025 Midterm Local Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®266422026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Elite Capture of the Party-List: Analysing the 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978581
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The 2025 Philippine midterm elections unfolded against the backdrop of an intensifying rivalry between the Marcos and Duterte dynasties.1 Portrayed by media and political institutions as a high-stakes drama, it diverted public attention away from substantive policy debates, turning the elections into a contest for dominance between two entrenched political families. As the Marcos camp worked to consolidate its institutional power and the Duterte bloc resisted what it saw as persecution, the elections effectively became a referendum not only on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration but also on the fractured UniTeam alliance that had propelled it to power.2Beneath this polarized backdrop, the party-list
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallElite Capture of the Party-List: Analysing the 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USElite Capture of the Party-List: Analysing the 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®244742026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Do Political Dynasties Make Space for Women? Evidence from the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978582
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Something unprecedented happened in the May 2025 Philippine midterm elections: entire provincial races were dominated by women candidates. In Ilocos Norte, Guimaras, Zamboanga Del Sur and Samar, every candidate for provincial governor was female.1 Nationwide, more women were elected governors than ever before. On the surface, it appeared to be a milestone for Philippine democracy.2 In a nation where men had long shaped local politics, more doors appear to be opening for women. But are they?While the trend appears empowering, these women did not rise from grassroots movements or climb the ranks of strong, programmatic political parties. Their ascent was not driven by bold social policy reforms or ideological shifts
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallDo Political Dynasties Make Space for Women? Evidence from the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USDo Political Dynasties Make Space for Women? Evidence from the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®378572026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Betrayal, Loyalty and Affective Polarization in the 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978583
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Ahead of the 2022 Philippines presidential elections, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the country’s late dictator, and Sara Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, joined forces. This alliance between two of the country’s most powerful political dynasties promised unity and stability, and their ticket won a landslide. But the UniTeam pact quickly unravelled. Heading into the 2025 midterm elections, some commentators argued it was not so much a plebiscite on the incumbent administration’s performance as a referendum on this high-stakes, dynastic battle.1 This article explores how the UniTeam’s break-up stoked “affective polarization” in society, making it an us-versus-them battleground
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallBetrayal, Loyalty and Affective Polarization in the 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USBetrayal, Loyalty and Affective Polarization in the 2025 Philippine Midterm Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®449902026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23“UniTeam” No More: Changing Social Media Narratives in the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978584
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At the 2022 presidential elections, the “UniTeam” alliance of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte relied heavily on social media to amplify their vague yet disciplined message of “unity”, a strategy that proved instrumental in securing their landslide victory. Once in office, President Marcos Jr. then leveraged online platforms to recast his family’s narrative and shine a better light on his late father’s dictatorial rule. Pro-Marcos Jr. vloggers and influencers, many of whom campaigned for the UniTeam ticket in 2022, dominated feeds in the early months of his administration.1However, the Marcos-Duterte partnership always seemed to be an “alliance of political convenience”,2 and the cracks emerged quickly after
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmall“UniTeam” No More: Changing Social Media Narratives in the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-US“UniTeam” No More: Changing Social Media Narratives in the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®419532026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Violence and Changing Drug War Rhetoric in the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978585
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At the 2025 midterm elections, Rodrigo Duterte, the former president, was elected mayor of Davao City despite having been arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged crimes against humanity and sent to The Hague for trial just months earlier. His eldest son, Paolo, was re-elected to the House of Representatives, and his youngest son, Sebastian, became Davao City’s vice mayor. During their campaigns, Duterte’s children projected themselves as upholding their father’s propensity for violence. Sebastian Duterte talked tough on drug users and criminals, declaring in March 2024, “If you don’t leave [Davao], I will kill you.”1 Within a week of this threat, seven drug suspects were killed. (Between
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallViolence and Changing Drug War Rhetoric in the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USViolence and Changing Drug War Rhetoric in the Philippines’ 2025 Midterm Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®357792026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Politics Over Prejudice? Explaining the Surprising Decline of Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Indonesia During the COVID-19 Pandemic
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978586
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Anti-Chinese sentiment has a long history in Indonesia. Although it has ebbed and flowed over the years, it has never entirely disappeared and, occasionally, has erupted into racially motivated violence. Things were relatively calm during the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (2004–14), yet anti-Chinese sentiment returned to the forefront of Indonesian politics in the late 2010s after Islamist mobilizations against the ethnic Chinese governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (more commonly known as Ahok), and Prabowo Subianto’s xenophobic disinformation campaigns in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections. Then-President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s perceived reliance on economic assistance from China from 2014
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallPolitics Over Prejudice? Explaining the Surprising Decline of Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Indonesia During the COVID-19 Pandemic2025-12-23text/htmlen-USPolitics Over Prejudice? Explaining the Surprising Decline of Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Indonesia During the COVID-19 Pandemic2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®1204842026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Local Actions, Global Impact: Women’s Agency in Timor-Leste and Pragmatic Indonesia-Timor-Leste Relations Through a Decolonial Lens
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978587
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Timor-Leste’s journey to nationhood was one of remarkable resilience. On 28 November 1975, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) declared independence from Portugal, after 400 years of colonization. Just nine days later, Indonesian troops invaded, ushering in 24 years of violent and repressive occupation. During this time, between 100,000 and 250,000 East Timorese died due to conflict-related killings, famine or disease.1 Clinton Fernandes has argued that at the upper limit of the death toll, almost 30 per cent of the population died during this period.2 During the Cold War, Indonesian President Suharto’s New Order regime enjoyed tacit Western support for its occupation of East Timor.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallLocal Actions, Global Impact: Women’s Agency in Timor-Leste and Pragmatic Indonesia-Timor-Leste Relations Through a Decolonial Lens2025-12-23text/htmlen-USLocal Actions, Global Impact: Women’s Agency in Timor-Leste and Pragmatic Indonesia-Timor-Leste Relations Through a Decolonial Lens2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®1739892026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Clientelism Rewired: Interim Leadership and Electoral Manipulation in Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Elections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978588
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The existing literature on Indonesian politics frequently highlights problems such as vote buying,1 entrenched dynasties2 and the politicization of public resources.3 While undoubtedly important, they typically operate through covert or informal mechanisms. This article examines a contrasting and underexplored mechanism: the formal, legally sanctioned appointment of unelected interim heads of local government in the lead-up to the 2024 elections.Since the mid-2000s, Indonesia’s leaders had debated whether to change to the system so that elections for city mayors, provincial governors and other local officials are not held at different times. Eventually, such a law was enacted in 2016. Officials from the Ministry of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallClientelism Rewired: Interim Leadership and Electoral Manipulation in Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Elections2025-12-23text/htmlen-USClientelism Rewired: Interim Leadership and Electoral Manipulation in Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Elections2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®1178412026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23From Nom Banh Chok to the Funan Techo Canal: Action Logic and Strategic Evolution of the Cambodian People’s Party’s Nationalist Mobilization
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978589
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In May 2024, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet replaced his social media profile pictures with a stylized image of the Funan Techo Canal, a US$1.7 billion megaproject designed to link the country’s capital, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand. This symbolic gesture ignited a viral trend: Cambodian netizens adopted the same profile picture to endorse the project and to push back against Vietnamese criticism over the canal’s potential economic and environmental impact on their country. The response echoed a nationalist campaign from five years earlier, when then-Prime Minister Hun Sen (Hun Manet’s father) urged Cambodians to eat nom banh chok, a Khmer rice noodle dish, to demonstrate national solidarity. Both
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallFrom Nom Banh Chok to the Funan Techo Canal: Action Logic and Strategic Evolution of the Cambodian People’s Party’s Nationalist Mobilization2025-12-23text/htmlen-USFrom Nom Banh Chok to the Funan Techo Canal: Action Logic and Strategic Evolution of the Cambodian People’s Party’s Nationalist Mobilization2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®1526102026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Children Affected by Armed Conflict in the Borderlands of Myanmar 2021 and Beyond by Kai Chen (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978590
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Since a military coup in February 2021 plunged Myanmar into a nationwide civil war, the country has been gripped by escalating crises. Women and children have borne the heaviest burden. A 2024 UNICEF report painted a grim picture: 3.5 million internally displaced people, over a million of them children. That same year, more than 750 children were killed or injured. According to the World Bank, over 28 per cent of school-aged children are out of school—likely an understatement. On top of this, children have been subjected to forced labour since the junta brought in its conscription law in February 2024. Despite this dire situation, their suffering has received far less attention than it warrants, making Kai Chen’s
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallChildren Affected by Armed Conflict in the Borderlands of Myanmar 2021 and Beyond by Kai Chen (review)2025-12-23text/htmlen-USChildren Affected by Armed Conflict in the Borderlands of Myanmar 2021 and Beyond by Kai Chen (review)2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®57392026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Ocean Governance and Conflict in the East and South China Sea: Negotiating Natural Resources, Institutions and Power by Christian Schultheiss (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978591
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Why do some claimant states in disputes over the East and South China Seas succeed in reaching agreements on natural resources or conflict management while others do not? In this meticulously researched work spanning over three decades of negotiations, Christian Schultheiss offers an answer that is both simple and profound: cooperation hinges on confidence that cooperation will not inadvertently strengthen a rival claimant’s bargaining power. This concern is not exclusive to smaller claimants but extends to larger powers as well.Schultheiss structures his book into six chapters that progressively build to this thesis. Chapter Two establishes the conceptual groundwork, introducing various types of agreements under
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallOcean Governance and Conflict in the East and South China Sea: Negotiating Natural Resources, Institutions and Power by Christian Schultheiss (review)2025-12-23text/htmlen-USOcean Governance and Conflict in the East and South China Sea: Negotiating Natural Resources, Institutions and Power by Christian Schultheiss (review)2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®70222026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Contesting Indonesia: Islamist, Separatist, and Communal Violence since 1945 by Kirsten Schulze (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978592
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The tension between national and regional identities has been a persistent theme in Indonesian political discourse since the country’s independence in 1945. Following the fall of long-time dictator Suharto in 1998, Indonesia experienced a wave of secessionist rebellions (in Aceh, East Timor and Papua), insurgencies (in Ambon, Molucca Islands and Central Sulawesi) and a resurgence of Islamist terrorism, most notably the activities of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group founded by the radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir. While these conflicts have been the subject of extensive scholarly attention, no one, until now, has sought to examine them collectively through a common analytical framework.Kirsten Schulze’s Contesting
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallContesting Indonesia: Islamist, Separatist, and Communal Violence since 1945 by Kirsten Schulze (review)2025-12-23text/htmlen-USContesting Indonesia: Islamist, Separatist, and Communal Violence since 1945 by Kirsten Schulze (review)2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®77212026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Chasing Archipelagic Dreams: The Expansion of Foreign Influence in Sabah amid the End of Empire, 1945–1965 by David R. Saunders (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978593
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Despite the substantial scholarship on how Southeast Asian states, societies and histories have developed since 1945, there remains considerable space for exploring the region’s micro-histories and localized politics. David R. Saunders’s Chasing Archipelagic Dreams: The Expansion of Foreign Influence in Sabah amid the End of Empire, 1945–1965 is a fine example. Saunders meticulously traces the intricate intersections of hegemonic ambitions and complex rivalries that enveloped Sabah, now part of Malaysia, during the tumultuous years following the end of colonial rule, and how geopolitical factors and interests—not least the Cold War and the emergence of new postcolonial states such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallChasing Archipelagic Dreams: The Expansion of Foreign Influence in Sabah amid the End of Empire, 1945–1965 by David R. Saunders (review)2025-12-23text/htmlen-USChasing Archipelagic Dreams: The Expansion of Foreign Influence in Sabah amid the End of Empire, 1945–1965 by David R. Saunders (review)2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®69842026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23Understanding Maritime Security by Christian Bueger and Timothy Edmunds (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/978594
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In both theory and practice, “maritime security” is a contested term. Does it refer to perceived threats or proposed solutions? The multiple interpretations lead to a complex and often fragmented discourse. However, as maritime issues increasingly shape dayto-day developments across global regions, achieving a clearer understanding of maritime security has become more urgent than ever for scholars and practitioners alike. Understanding Maritime Security, authored by two of the world’s leading maritime theorists, Christian Bueger and Timothy Edmunds, represents a bold and systematic effort to unpack this complicated subject and its web of interrelated challenges.It begins by establishing the historical and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/348/image/coversmallUnderstanding Maritime Security by Christian Bueger and Timothy Edmunds (review)2025-12-23text/htmlen-USUnderstanding Maritime Security by Christian Bueger and Timothy Edmunds (review)2025-12-232025TWOProject MUSE®74072026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-23