Phillip Orchard

Phillip Orchard is an analyst at Geopolitical Futures. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Orchard spent nearly six years at Stratfor, working as an editor and writing about East Asian geopolitics. He’s spent more than six years abroad, primarily in Southeast Asia and Latin America, where he’s had formative, immersive experiences with the problems arising from mass political upheaval, civil conflict and human migration. Mr. Orchard holds a master’s degree in Security, Law and Diplomacy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where he focused on energy and national security, Chinese foreign policy, intelligence analysis, and institutional pathologies. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas. He speaks Spanish and some Thai and Lao.

Latest From Author

Japan’s Indispensable Role in Southeast Asia

One of the funnier moments of the past few years in geopolitics took place in 2017 in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bedroom. Duterte had been in power for only about six months at this point, but he’d famously announced a divorce from the United States, Manila’s longtime treaty ally, and aggressively courted China. Given the […]

A New Mutually Assured Destruction

To whatever extent the U.S. and China are truly sliding toward a zero-sum Cold War-type rivalry, Beijing appears to be game at least for a good old-fashioned nuclear arms...

Xi Jinping’s Coming Winter of Discontent

At some point, roughly a year from now, the Communist Party of China will hold its semidecennial Party Congress. It's always a very big deal because, among other reasons,...

What We’re Reading: Patriot, Games

Spec Ops: The Line Developed by Yager Development I’m one of the fortunate many who knows nothing about war. As a kid I remember the anxiety and confusion of watching news...

Why Evergrande Is Going to Plan

The saga of debt-ridden Chinese property giant Evergrande, which has been rattling markets at home and abroad, isn’t going away anytime soon. After missing a series of bond interest...

The Porcupine, or the Pit Viper?

China’s breakneck military buildup has generated all sorts of alarm in both Washington and Taiwan. U.S. arms sales to the island have spiked over the past decade accordingly. Taipei...

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