The Imposition of Dictatorship:Fifty Years Since Marcos’Declaration of Martial Law in thePhilippines

Presented via Zoom webinar on Thursday, September 22, 2022. Philippines Lecture Series Speaker: Joseph Scalice, Author of the forthcoming book, The Drama of Dictatorship: Martial law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines (Cornell University Press, 2023) Chair: James Robson, James C. Kralik, and Yunli Lou Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard College Professor; Victor and William Fung Director, Asia Center, Harvard University Abstract: Fifty years ago, on September 21, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, imposing a brutal military dictatorship on the Philippines that would last for more than a decade. This lecture will detail the extraordinary events and political crisis that culminated in the declaration, examining what we now know about how it was carried out and outlining its historical and contemporary significance. In May 2022, the dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was elected president of the Philippines. Why have the perpetrators and representatives of dictatorship been rehabilitated? What can we learn of the martial law regime of the 1970s to aid in understanding the Marcos II government? Biography: Joseph Scalice was most recently a visiting fellow at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science studying revolutionary movements and authoritarianism in Southeast Asia with a focus on the postwar Philippines. He completed his PhD in South and Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley in 2018. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Drama of Dictatorship: Martial law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines (Cornell University Press, 2023).