THE POLITICS OF PEACE AND THE MINDANAO PROBLEM. Foreword by Prof. Goran Collste. Introduction by Dr. Mansoor Limba. Published by Elzystyle Publishing.
Praise for The Politics of Peace and the Mindanao Problem
This book comes at the right time. Dr Christopher Ryan Maboloc focuses on the long-lasting conflict in Mindanao. He explains the background to the present conflict and discusses roads to peace and reconciliation. Dr Maboloc is a scholar in applied ethics. In applied ethics we reflect on today’s moral challenges to find guidance and justified solutions. This book is a fine example of how applied ethics can contribute to our understanding of a moral challenge implying injustice, violence and poverty.
Dr Maboloc refers to the history of Spanish and American colonialism as periods of exploitation and power politics. The clan-based politics and the religious conflicts between Christians and Muslims are other keys to understand the present conflict. As he writes, Mindanao has become the battlefront between a deep historical and political divide. We live in a time of crises and wars and the quest for peace, and peaceful ways to solve conflicts are more needed than ever.
––Dr. Göran Collste
Emeritus Professor, Center for Applied Ethics, Linköping University, Sweden
The Politics of Peace and the Mindanao Problem is both a timely and profound exploration into one of Southeast Asia’s most enduring and complex struggles. Drawing on political theory, applied ethics, and lived experience, Christopher Ryan Maboloc unpacks the historical injustices and structural exclusions that have shaped Mindanao’s social and political landscape. By positioning the Bangsamoro question within both national and global contexts, he skillfully bridges the theoretical with the concrete, showing how marginalization, the politics of identity, and entrenched power structures, continue to obstruct genuine peacebuilding.
The work stands out not only for its academic rigor, but for its moral clarity and deep personal investment. Maboloc, a son of Mindanao, reflects with courage and nuance on the nature of democracy in the Philippines, the politics of exclusion, and the failures of both state and international actors in securing lasting peace. Influenced by thinkers such as Iris Marion Young, Johan Galtung, Thomas Pogge, and Mahatma Gandhi, Maboloc also advances a holistic and ethical framework for peace—one that is grounded in justice, dignity and the right to self-determination.
This book is an important reading for students, scholars, policymakers, peace practitioners, and anyone concerned with the fate of marginalized communities in a plural and conflict-ridden world. Politics of Peace does more than recount a history of oppression—it charts a moral path forward, demanding that social and political structures be reformed and that democratic participation be expanded to ensure that the Bangsamoro and other excluded peoples can build futures of their own making. With this work, Maboloc invites us not just to understand peace, but to commit to it.
––Mihai Lupu, Research Fellow, Yale University Global Justice Program, Connecticut, USA
The world is filled with wars and conflicts including the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Gaza crises, uncertainty in the post-Assad Syria situations, etc. We are in the middle of the urgent moment that requires lasting peace around the globe. However, lasting peace needs a proper and contextually oriented understanding of peace. Conventionally, Western liberal peace has assumed the core role in both the intellectual and practice peacebuilding enterprise. However, liberal peace has failed to develop conflict and peace analysis underpinned by the nexus of local, national, and global dynamics. We need good integrative conflict analysis and holistic peace visions for each conflict and war. And this book is a great exemplar for such an endeavor.
With his rich knowledge, Maboloc develops an insightful analysis of protracted conflict in Mindanao in the Philippines, integrating communal and national dynamics, colonial histories and the impacts of contemporary global political dynamics. Founded upon superb insight into philosophy, ethics, peace and conflict studies, and Mindanao’s culture and history, Maboloc shows comprehensively how a variety of dynamics and several components have prolonged the conflict including structural injustice, discrimination, marginalization of local people from politics, colonialism, etc. Only when people understand those complex but interconnected variables and dynamics, can we grasp the real picture of the Mindanao conflict and the peace that Mindanao requires for people.
Though it focuses on conflict and peace in Mindanao, this book not only helps readers to understand conflict in Mindanao but also gives them an opportunity to contemplate the meanings of justice, human dignity, humane politics, restoration of broken inter-human relations, and the ethos of critique of colonialism as well as of asymmetric nature of global political and economic structures. This book will be of great help to peace and conflict studies academics, policy makers, NGO workers and students who wish to contribute to their own local, national peace.
––Dr. Juichiro Tanabe, Professor Center for International Education, Waseda University, Tokyo
The Politics of Peace and the Mindanao Problem by Christopher Ryan Maboloc delves into the philosophical and political dimensions of peacebuilding in Mindanao. Through a critical examination of conflict, justice, and governance—based on both local realities and Western political theory—Maboloc presents an alternative model or concept of ethical leadership and responsibility pursuing lasting peace. This book invites readers to consider how to resolve various forms of violence, offering a nuanced and compelling discussion on democracy, human rights, and the real role of institutions in fostering social harmony.
Grounded in real-world issues, The Politics of Peace addresses the challenges of political violence, inequality, and the ethics of reconciliation. Maboloc draws on Iris Young’s theory of politics of difference to approach structural inequality and political violence predicated on groups and individuals with diverse and intersecting differences, such as religion, ethnicity, and social class. Maboloc correctly highlights the importance of grassroots movements, deep community engagement, and ethical decision-making in ensuring democratic inclusion, which is crucial for solving the Mindanao problem. His analysis bridges the gap between philosophy and practical governance, making the book essential reading for college students, scholars, and policymakers seeking to understand the deeper principles behind peace and conflict resolution.
Written in an accessible yet intellectually rigorous style, The Politics of Peace challenges readers to reflect on the imperatives of leadership and the responsibilities of both individuals and institutions in cultivating a just and peaceful society. As a Mindanawon scholar, Maboloc critiques the centralization of power and knowledge production in the Philippines while also exposing the multilayered inequalities among groups in Muslim Mindanao—such as Christians, Muslims, and Indigenous Peoples—as well as disparities within and across these communities. His writing, informed by his own positionality and sense of responsibility, engages readers with decolonial ideas and consciousness. Whether you are a political theorist, a peace advocate, or simply a curious reader, Maboloc’s insights offer valuable perspectives on one of humanity’s most pressing challenges.
––Dr. Asuna Yoshizawa
Research Fellow, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan
Christopher Ryan Maboloc’s The Politics of Peace and the Mindanao Problem, arguably stands as a pioneering attempt to identify and dissect the historical roots and structural causes of historical injustice wrought upon the indigenous peoples of Mindanao. By astutely using second-order philosophical and ethical critique and analysis to elucidate perennial challenges to peace, and ways to resolve them, Dr. Maboloc’s work will be extremely useful to researchers, policymakers, development practitioners, NGO workers, students, and academics faced by the seemingly elusive quest for peace in the Bangsamoro.
––Dr. Narcisa Paredes-Canilao
Professor of Philosophy and Ethical Issues in Development, University of the Philippines – Baguio, Philippines
This book is a breath of much needed fresh air written at a time of change and troubling conflicts all around the world. The most likely way that we can find an enduring solution to the troubles that give rise to conflict is through establishing a research-policy nexus that is inclusive of views of a divided community. We need to promote glocal (global and local) solutions to the valid concerns of all stakeholders in a conflict. If all beings are created in the image of God, then we need to move from rhetoric that merely repeats the mantras of one particular faction, but find a way to accommodate the value dreams and aspirations of all peoples to self-determination.
The colonization of the world left a great mess, constructing nations that are sometimes not natural sovereign nations. Yet, we also see that larger alliances of civilizations can often provide routes to a more stable future. We saw this in the rise of ASEAN, attempting to mimic the European Union, as a way to resolve wars and conflicts. A successful solution to the conflicts between different Peoples living in Mindanao, starts with a respectful description of opposing views, and research to articulate a shared vision that embraces and celebrates the diversity of people. All people need to work together, even though some reconciliation processes must be ongoing, and we may need to restructure the governance and representation mechanisms that have their own strong inertia.
The work of Ryan is critical for describing more of the key issues in peace making, so that the diverse and beautiful land and ocean that construct Mindanao, can thrive. It calls on governments (national, regional, local), people in centers of community power and influence, business leaders, youth, people with passion, and all, can revisit their preconceived ideas, examine the research, create new research to contest or confirm the research findings that are presented, and work together for a sustainable future.
––Dr. Darryl Macer,
President, American University of Sovereign Nations, Arizona, USA
Peace educators in Muslim Mindanao, given their lived experiences on violent conflicts and on how they actively played their role to counter violent extremism through the force of ahimsa, view conflict as an opportune to unfold the reality of peace: peace must not remain to be a perpetual aspiration of the Tri-people but toinsert peace in Bernard Williams’ words (cited by Dr. Maboloc in his preface), “the most important enterprise is peaceful living” hence peace, through peaceful coexistence among the Tri-people, is the ethical character to live by and such manifestation of conflict transformation can be facilitated in the academe through peace education. By designing a highly scholarly research to decipher what in political, social, and philosophical languages is the “Mindanao Problem,” Dr. Maboloc’s profound work is a fundamental imagery in the peace education landscape. I encourage the various communities of peace educators in Mindanao to refer to his work on our discussion on the Mindanao Problem so we, together with our learners, can articulate well a problem of injustice- poverty in Mindanao- and its resolution, the Tri-people have truly longed for.
––Godiva C. Eviota-Rivera, Ph. D.
Full Professor and Trailblazer of the MSU System-Wide Peace Education, Mindanao State University, Marawi City
In each of his works, Prof. Maboloc speaks not just as a scholar of political theory and ethics, but as a Mindanawon whose roots are deeply embedded in the soil of a long-contested land. This book, however, is more than an intellectual undertaking—it is a moral appeal. A call to remember. A plea to listen.
––Dr. Mansoor Limba, SCL
Associate Professor, Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines
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