A Look Back at America’s First “Regime Change” War: The Philippines

In a blow to global media freedom, independent journalist Maria Ressa was convicted in the Philippines last week on trumped up charges of cyber-libel. Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has made a sharp turn toward authoritarianism, and Ressa’s arrest signals the continuing decline of democracy in the Philippines.

IGA traveled to Manila to speak with Ressa along with the columnist Richard Heydarian to better understand the Philippines’ complicated history, and why the country is slipping back into its illiberal past. The forgotten legacy of America’s colonization of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th-century helps illuminate this worrisome trend.

This video includes references to the Eurasia Group Foundation, now known as the Institute for Global Affairs.