WATER DEMOCRACY:RECLAIMING PUBLIC WATER IN ASIA

ESSAY COLLECTION PRESENTED BY THE RECLAIMING PUBLIC WATER NETWORK

NOVEMBER 2007

The Focus Annual Report 2006 has just been released.

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'At the Door of all the East': The Philippines in United States Military Strategy

This report seeks to document and explain why and how the United States has been attempting to re-establish its military presence in the Philippines in the period beginning in 2001. Diverging from the common explanation attributing increased US military presence in the country to the so-called “global war on terror,” this report instead locates US actions in the Philippines and in the Asia-Pacific region in the larger context of the US’ objectives and strategy.

The self-avowed aim of the US is to perpetuate its position of being the world’s sole superpower in order to re-order the world. Its strategy to perpetuate its status is to prevent the rise of any rivals.  To do this, it is seeking the capacity to deter and defeat potential enemies anywhere in the world by retaining and realigning  its “global posture” or its ability to operate across the globe through its worldwide network of forward-deployed troops, bases, andaccess agreements. Today, the US believes that, of all its potential rivals, China poses the greatest threat and must therefore be contained before it becomes even more powerful.