Alfred W. McCoy

Crime, society, and the state in the nineteenth-century Philippines

The subject of this thesis is the nineteenth century Philippines. Its objective is twofold: to use the criminal archives to create a social perspective of town and country life during this period; and, then, to examine the role of the judicial system in Spains colonial order as it emerged in the Philippines. The thesiss structure reflects this dual objective. The first part of the thesis explores the nature of crime in nineteenth century society, the degree to which it fluctuated over time, the types of offences that were common to particular localities, and the factors that gave rise to specific criminal activities. This has been achieved by a series of comparisons: urban-rural as between Manila and the provinces; inter-urban as between various administrative sub-divisions of Manila; and inter-regional as between the two provinces of Cavite and Camarines Sur. Emphasis has been placed on the indigenous population as social protesters, economic participators and cultural initiators in society. The second part of the thesis deals with the emergence of the judicial aspects of the state during the nineteenth century. The law became increasingly codified, the courts became increasingly professionalised, enforcement became increasingly specialised and punishment became increasingly institutionalised. A concept of the state within the Philippines is proposed in which the judicial system was developed primarily as an instrument of governance and only secondarily as a mechanism of justice. Finally, the judicial role of the Church is examined from this perspective. In conclusion, it is argued that the state that emerged during the nineteenth century was the product of the interaction between indigenous society and Spanish aims to preserve the colonial order in the Philippines.

Coercion and its unintended consequences : A study of heroin trafficking in Southeast and South West Asia

If history is any guide, Asias opium production may increase to levels that will defeat the war on drugs now being waged by the United States and the United Nations (UN). Whatever suppression strategy they might adopt, present trends in opiate production and consumption indicate that world supply is likely to expand rapidly into the foreseeable future, compromising the prohibition that both have pursued for the past quarter century

Covert Netherworld: An Invisible Interstice in the Modern World System

This essay explores a domain of geopolitical conflict called “covert netherworld” that has been a seminal in world politics for the past half century and likely to become more central in the century to come. During the Cold War and its aftermath, covert netherworlds formed worldwide through confluence of four essential elements: reliance of modern states on covert methods for power projection at home and abroad; the consequent emergence of a clandestine social milieu populated by secret services and criminal syndicates; a complementary illicit economic nexus that sustains non-state actors and sometimes state security; and finally, spatial dimensions that range from a narrow criminal or covert milieu to entire countries or continents. When these elements align, this netherworld can attain the sheer geopolitical power to shape the course of national and international events. To lend substance to these generic elements, the essay explores three arenas of widening geographical scope. At the local level in the southern Philippines, a regional netherworld fostered Islamic insurgency and state counterinsurgency, while national elections were sustained by an illegal lottery, shaping the character of an emerging polity. At the transnational level, Frances postcolonial hold on the West African region dubbed Francafrique constrained corruption within state-mediated circuits and entrenched elites at both ends of this bilateral exchange. By contrast, U.S. covert operations in Afghanistan and Central America had divergent outcomes influenced by their degree of congruence with the narcotics traffic, demonstrating that the covert netherworld can exercise sufficient autonomy to be treated as a significant factor in world politics.

Surveillance and Scandal: Weapons in an Emerging Array for U.S. Global Power

During six riveting months in 2013–2014, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA) poured out from the Washington Post , the New York Times, the Guardian , Germany’s Der Spiegel , and Brazil’s O Globo , revealing nothing less than the architecture of the U.S. global surveillance apparatus. Despite heavy media coverage and commentary, no one has pointed out the combination of factors that made the NSA’s expanding programs to monitor the world seem like such an alluring development for Washington’s power elite. The answer is remarkably simple: for an imperial power losing its economic grip on the planet and heading into more austere times, the NSA’s latest technological breakthroughs look like a seductive bargain when it comes to projecting power and keeping subordinate allies in line. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

A Rupture in Philippine-U.S. Relations: Geopolitical Implications

“Your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States … both in military, but economics also,” said Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte to a burst of applause from an audience of officials in Beijings Great Hall of the People, the symbolic seat of Chinas ruling Communist Party. At the Philippine-Chinese trade forum that same day, October 20, 2016, Duterte opened his speech by asking, “What is really wrong with an American character?” Americans are, he continued, “loud, sometimes rowdy, and they have this volume of their voice … not adjusted to civility…. They are the more forward commanding voice befitting obedience.” Evoking some deep Filipino racialist tropes, Duterte then mocked the flat, nasal American accent and rued the time he was questioned at the Los Angeles airport by a “Black” officer with a “black” uniform, “black shoes,” and a “black” gun. Moving from rhetoric to substance, Duterte quietly capitulated to Beijings relentless pressure for bilateral talks to settle the dispute over the South China Sea, virtually abrogating Manilas recent slam-dunk win on that issue before an international court (Demick and Wilson 2016; DU30 News 2016).

Circles of Steel, Castles of Vanity: The Geopolitics of Military Bases on the South China Sea

After four years of rising tensions over Chinas construction of military bases in the South China Sea, in July 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a landmark decision layered with meaning, academic as well as diplomatic. “Chinas claims to historic rights, or other sovereign rights or jurisdiction,” wrote the panel of five judges, “with respect to the maritime areas … encompassed by the relevant part of the ‘nine-dash line’ are contrary to the Convention [on the Law of the Sea] and without lawful effect.” Writing with unambiguous clarity, the court ruled that Chinas dredging of these artificial islands for military bases gave it no right whatsoever to the surrounding seas and rebuked Beijing for infringing on waters that the Philippines should rightly control. Chinas claims to most of the South China Sea within that nine-dash line, which Beijing first published on maps at the height of the Cold War in 1953 and has pursued ever since, “were extinguished,” the court said, by the UN Convention (Gao and Jia 2013, 103–4; New York Times 2016; Permanent Court of Arbitration 2016, 68–77, 116–17).

REFLECTIONS ON HISTORY'S LARGEST AIR WAR

Foreword by Alfred W. McCoy to Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War, edited by Fred Branfman with essays and drawings by Laotian villagers. (2nd ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. xix+176 pp.). First published in 1972, Voices from the Plain of Jars was instrumental in exposing the massive secret U.S. bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War. In this expanded edition journalist and peace activist Fred Branfman brings the story forward in time, describing the hardships that Laotians faced after the war when they returned to find their farm fields littered with cluster munitions—explosives that continue to maim and kill today.