The world was caught by surprise in June 2017 when an ISIS-affiliated militia took over the city of Marawi on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.  The subsequent five-month long siege by Filipino commandos to liberate Marawi cost thousands of lives, displaced over a million people, and caused billions of dollars in damages.

With the U.S. Pacific Command as a partner, Sunnylands convened senior national security officials from several U.S. agencies, as well as defense experts from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United Nations to examine Marawi as a case study through the lens of security and reconstruction.

As a result of the retreat, convened in Singapore from January 30 to February 1, 2018, the group developed a joint approach for providing support to the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations to counter the terrorism threat.