The Trajectory of Imagined Wars

“Maybe the war is over,” one of the former militants in the Moro separatist movement in the Philippines told me. The hesitancy in his optimism reflected the uncertainties in the peace process between the Philippine government and the main militant movement, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. A peace agreement that had been negotiated in 2015 was finally signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018 after years of stalling that fueled the opposition and led to a major military confrontation in the city of Marawi in 2017. So despite the continuing tension, he now had reason to at least hope that the war was coming to an end. What he meant by the ending of the war was not just a matter of militants in his movement capitulating to the overwhelming strength of the Philippine government and laying down their arms. He meant a change in attitude towards the conflict. He was talking about the shift in worldviews from a situation of absolute opposition to one where opponents were not foes. They were not yet friends, but there was now the potential for a working arrangement in which they would be able to negotiate differences and build a common future. 1 The Trajectory of Imagined Wars