Notes on Southeast Asia is a writing project about the region and the forces shaping it: the diplomacy of ASEAN, the pressures of great-power rivalry, and the long shadow that trade, security, and history cast over daily life in this part of the world. The aim is modest but sustained; to watch closely, to think carefully, and to write in a way that treats readers as fellow observers rather than spectators.
The vantage point here is a life divided between the United States and the Philippines. That double vision shapes what this blog notices: how decisions made in Washington and Beijing land in Manila, Jakarta, and Hanoi; how the region reads itself; and what often goes missing when Southeast Asia is treated as a footnote to someone else’s story.
You will find essays on regional politics and security, reflections on Philippine history and culture, and occasional forays into the wider currents of faith, economics, and geopolitics that run beneath the headlines. Some pieces are timely; others are meant to last a little longer.
Thanks for reading. If something here is useful, provoking, or simply worth arguing with, that is enough.
Notes on Southeast Asia 