Think national, start local: taming the Philippines communists

For more than 50 years, the Philippine insurgent group the New People’s Army has sought to foment a communist revolution in the rural regions across the country. The group has sustained itself by recruiting or coercing the support of local villages within designated regional commands.

But just as the group was about to celebrate its anniversary in March, the Philippine’s government suddenly dissolved the longstanding negotiations for dealing with the insurgent group’s political wing, known as the National Democratic Front. Instead of dealing with the whole, the authorities in Manila sought to exploit the distinctly local qualities of the insurgency by holding a series of peace talks across the various regions. Luke Lischin writes for the Interpreter.

Read the article here.