Deconstructing Marcos' "Paradigm Shift" Rhetoric in Addressing the South China Sea Conflict: The Prevailing Paradigm of the Philippines' National Security Policy (original) (raw)
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Between the United States and China: Philippines foreign policy in the case of South China Sea
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In 2016 there were several events that could change the Philippines' foreign policy in Southeast Asia. The tensions in the South China Sea were growing since several parties claimed the sea, and there were new presidents elected in the Philippines and the United States. This thesis focuses on the Philippines' strategy in this complicated geopolitical situation between the two great powers, the United States of America and China. The aim of this thesis was to identify how the Philippines respond to the changing geopolitical dynamics in the region after 2016 in the case of the South China Sea and which strategy they are using in their actions. The author explains the situation in the region, defines a small state, and then discusses the potential strategies a small state has in the case. The author set a hypothesis that the Philippines mainly use a hedging strategy to respond to the region's geopolitical dynamics. To test the hypothesis, the author conducted content analys...
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Jurnal Dinamika Global, 2021
The South China Sea (SCS) has become the largest and the crucial Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOCs) not only for Southeast Asia but also for the world. As one of the claimants of the South China Sea, Philippines were always and will always be trying to protect its national interests in the disputed waterways as part of its national territory. This article discusses about the shift and continuity of the Philippines� foreign policy on the South China Sea issue. It explicates the shift and continuity of Philippines foreign policy under Rodrigo Duterte to the South China Sea. A more focus elaboration will be devoted on how the Philippines implemented its foreign policy to deal with China in the South China Sea dispute.It argues that Duterte foreign policy to this delicate issue is always based on the strategic dynamic of its �two-level game� (domestic and international political stimuli) to its national interests.
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Pivot Toward China: A Critical Analysis of the Philippines’ Policy Shift on the South China Sea Disputes, 2019
This article investigates the Philippines’ puzzling reversal of its position against China following its victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on maritime claims in the South China Sea. Instead of asserting its de jure sovereign rights, which were reaffirmed by the PCA’s decision, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte instead opted to build stronger relations with China. Proposing a burden-sharing analytical approach, the article argues that the Philippines is using China as leverage in its alliance with the United States. By exploiting the “China Card” and downplaying the arbitration case, the Philippines has extracted concessions from Beijing and Washington. In capitalizing on the Sino-American rivalry, Manila has reaffirmed its strategic value within the U.S.‒Philippines alliance while benefitting more visibly from Chinese foreign aid and investment pledges. However, the Philippines’ policy posture vis-à-vis China reflects short-term diplomatic and economic tactics rather than an enduring strategic reorientation away from the United States.
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The aim of this policy brief is to discuss how the National Security Strategy (NSS) seeks to promote Philippine national security interests in the South China Sea (SCS). In particular, this paper seeks to answer the following questions: 1) How does the NSS perceive the regional security environment of the Indo-Asia-Pacific particularly, with respect to the SCS?; 2) How does the NSS articulate Philippine national security interests in the SCS and what are the identified courses of action to pursue such interests?; and 3) What are the challenges in promoting Philippine interests in the SCS?
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REFLECTIONS ON THE PHILIPPINES – CHINA RELATIONS, THE SOUTH CHINA SEA, AND THE ASEAN INTEGRATION
The postwar era has enabled the international community to really depend on soft power in the conduct of relations with each other. The creation of the United Nations, and other international organizations has helped manage and prevent disputes and conflicts that would possibly lead to another world war. States have been able to advance their national interests or positions relevant to international issues and negotiate with other States through diplomacy. The shift from hard power to soft power has brought-on the one hand, the rise of international law and international codes of conduct that became the " great equalizer " of States that manifested the consciousness " right is might " , rather " might is right " ; and on the other hand, has grounded States into a more complex form of relationships, having the victors of the war yielding greater power and dominance in the said institutions-hence, the opportunities and challenges of the new world order. This paper intends to present an example of the double-edged sword aspect of the new world order of the postwar era. It shall reflect on a contemporary international issue, the South China Sea dispute, and try to look into how it has changed the landscape of international affairs in the Philippine perspective. Further, the geopolitics of the Southeast Asian region and its collective aspirations relevant to the issue will be looked into against the success or failure of the exercise of soft power/ diplomacy. However, this essay is only limited into contextualizing the issue and does not intend to formulate recommendations and suggestive actions. All of these shall be done in order to evaluate the present conditions of the postwar Philippines with respect to foreign policies and the promotion of its national interests as a sovereign nation.
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This article proposes a theoretical framework for understanding Filipino president Ro-drigo Duterte's celebrated 'pivot to China. ' It begins by discussing the model of asymmetric relations as a suitable framework for understanding relations between highly unequal states, and the concept of dual structural asymmetry as a means of theorising the triangular relations among the Philip-pines, the USA and China since the end of the Cold War. Next, it presents various economic and political indicators of the shift in Filipino foreign policy under Duterte. It goes on to propose a theoretical model for identifying the linkages between elements of political economy and international security from the perspective of Brantly Womack's theory of asymmetry. Lastly, it presents three scenarios for resolving the territorial dispute in the South China Sea (SCS) between the Philippines and China: two with maximum gains for one country only, and a third with an acceptable result for both countries as a product of mutual concessions.
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"The Philippines Confronts China in the South China Sea: Power Politics versus Liberalism-Legalism"
Asian Perspective, 2015
Using the Scarborough Shoal standoff between China and the Philippines as a case study, this paper examines two ways of addressing territorial disputes—the power-politics and liberal/legal approaches. On the one hand, as a big and emergent power, China uses realpolitik to press its expansive claim in the South China Sea. On the other hand, as a small power with the weakest military in Southeast Asia, the Philippines adopts the liberal/legal approach. It applies on China a balancing policy that is predicated on a limited territorial defense build-up and a security guarantee from the U.S., and pursued through the instrumentalities of the ASEAN and other international bodies. During the standoff, China drove the Philippines out of the shoal—a move that stopped short of an armed clash—and effected a de facto occupation of the contested area. As a countermeasure, the Philippines filed a statement of claim with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) not only to confront China’s strategy of power politics head-on but also to test if Thucydides’ age-old aphorism that “the strong do what they have the power to do, and the weak accept what they have to accept” still holds true in the 21st century global society.
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How do strategic changes affect small powers? How do small powers adjust to strategic changes? This article addresses these two questions as it examines the strategic shift in the Philippines’ defense policy from internal to maritime security. With China’s naval expansion in the South China Sea, the Philippine government has eased up its counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism campaign and has vigorously pursued instead the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) particularly in developing the deterrence capability of the Philippine Navy (PN). However, slow-paced and hampered by scant resources, the naval build-up will hardly deter China’s encroachment on the Philippine maritime territory. Faced with this predicament, the Philippines has resorted to forging new security partnerships with the United States and Japan, two major naval powers in East Asia. The paper concludes that maritime security will remain the Philippines’ priority concern way into the third decade of the 21st century.
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