58 east asian policy Philippine-US Alliance in Transition: Towards Polycentric Relations? Carmina Yu UNTALAN* The fragile Indo-Pacifc security environment calls for recalibrating the Philippine-US alliance. Instead of attempting to revive the anachronistic hub- and-spokes system that tottered during the Duterte administration, Washington and Manila should move towards a polycentric type of relations that considers substate actors in conducting foreign afairs. This would be necessary to address traditional and non-traditional security concerns endangering the region’s stability. * Carmina Yu UNTALAN is a Visiting Researcher at Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University. “OUR SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP with the United States is not something to be cavalier about”. This was the recently elected Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr’s response when asked if he would scuttle the Philippine-