SASS ROGANDO SASOT
I GOT excited when I read the term “subaltern realism” in Richard Heydarian’s new book The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt Against Elite Democracy. It’s a term that Mohammed Ayoob, professor of international relations at Michigan State University, has used to engage critically with international relations theory applied in developing countries. With that background, I expected to see how Heydarian would pull off an Ayoob. However, it turns out that “subaltern realism” is just a rhetorical ornament rather than a lens to understand our country’s foreign policy choices.