The US and Japan are launching their largest-ever Keen Sword exercise, bringing tens of thousands of troops, dozens of ships and hundreds of aircraft together across the First Island Chain. The Philippines has joined as an active participant for the first time, along with several other US allies. The drills extend beyond traditional sea and air operations into space, cyber and electromagnetic warfare. At the same time, Manila is deepening cooperation with Washington and Tokyo, even as direct military communication with Beijing remains frozen. Can these overlapping partnerships become a real deterrent network rather than a collection of exercises and arms deals? In this episode, we examine what Keen Sword is testing, how Japan and the Philippines are fitting into a broader security architecture and what Taiwan can learn from the growing integration of US allies across the Indo-Pacific.
*Recorded on October 20, 2026 at 4:30pm Taiwan Standard Time
Host: Rath Wang
Producer: Miguel Yang
Videographer: Damon Lin
Our guests:
Tony Hu
- Former US Department of Defense Senior Director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia
Ronan Fu
- Academia Sinica Institute of Political Science Assistant Research Fellow
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