Unpacking the Philippines’ 2018 National Security Strategy: Examining the Case of the South China Sea Dispute (original) (raw)
Related papers
Between the United States and China: Philippines foreign policy in the case of South China Sea
2021
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...
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.
NDCP Executive Policy Brief, 2017
This paper aims to discuss how the Philippines-Japan Strategic Partnership strengthens Manila’s maritime security posture in the SCS. In particular, this article seeks to address the following questions: (1) What is a strategic partnership?; (2) Why is there a strategic imperative for the Philippines and Japan to forge such a partnership?; and (3) How does the PJSPD bolster Manila’s maritime capabilities? Using the strategic partnership framework developed by Thomas Wilkins, this paper argues that Manila and Tokyo forged a strategic partnership largely because of their shared concern over the uncertainty in the regional security environment caused by China’s rise, as manifested by its increasing assertiveness in the SCS. In this context, the Philippines-Japan Strategic Partnership’s objective of promoting peace and stability in the SCS is operationalized by strengthening Manila’s maritime security posture through: 1) enhancing maritime domain awareness; 2) conducting bilateral capacity-building initiatives; and 3) coordinating measures in managing tensions at the multilateral level. http://www.ndcp.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/publications/3.%20EPB%20re%20PH-Japan\_v11.pdf
Pacific Forum Issues & Insights Vol. 23, SR11 , 2023
Chapter 2: The South China Sea (SCS) and Taiwan are potential flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific region. Although the disputes have been ongoing for decades, the strategic competition between the two powers – the United States and China – has added real risk to the overlapping territorial and maritime claims. While there is already a large body of literature on both issues, most analyses on the SCS and Taiwan consider them as two distinct issues. While such an approach is logical and understandable, it is likewise important to explore the linkage between the two issues because they impact each other due to geographical proximity. This paper seeks to answer how can the Philippines-U.S. alliance complement efforts to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, specifically in the geopolitical nexus of the SCS dispute and cross-Strait relations? This paper also addresses the linkage between the SCS dispute and cross-Strait relations, how such a nexus figures in the overall security of the Indo-Pacific, and how the convergence and divergence of interests in these disputes create policy complexities for Manila and Washington. The aim is to provide policy inputs for courses of action vis-à-vis the challenges the alliance faces amidst great power competition. https://pacforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/US-PH-Volume-2023-Super-Final.pdf
This paper seeks to discuss how the Philippine-Japan Strategic Partnership, as a form of security cooperation, complements efforts in promoting peace and stability in the South China Sea (SCS).Although enjoying good ties since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1956, the Philippines and Japan elevated their bilateral relationship to a higher level of cooperation when they issued Philippine-Japan Strategic Partnership Declaration (PJSPD) in 2011. Four years later, Manila and Tokyo announced that their relations have " entered the state of Strengthened Strategic Partnership. " The strategic partnership between the two US allies is forged against the milieu of an increasingly complex and uncertain security landscape driven largely by an emerging power shift in the region, as manifested in the tensions surrounding maritime and territorial disputes in, among others, the SCS. Against this backdrop this article seeks to address the following questions: 1) What is a strategic partnership?; 2) Why is there a strategic imperative for the Philippines and Japan to forge a strategic partnership?; and 3) How can Manila and Tokyo foster peace and stability in the SCS through the implementation of the PJSPD? Using the strategic partnership framework developed Thomas Wilkins, this paper argues that the Philippine-Japan Strategic Partnership's objective of promoting peace and stability in the SCS is operationalized through the: 1) enhancement of maritime domain awareness; 2) bilateral capacity building initiatives; and 3) coordination of measures in managing the dispute at the multilateral level.
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.
Understanding the Philippine National Security Strategy
Understanding the Philippine National Security Strategy, 2016
National security is a concept that seeks for the protection of the interest of the nation state and its people with the state’s sustainability and survival its utmost priority, hence, a strategy to promote it is instructive for every nation. However, in the development of a National Security Strategy (NSS), the people must understand and have a common appreciation of the necessary fundamentals that constitute the framing of such a strategy. National security commands the employment of all the elements of national power: its territory, people and resources, and the use of political, diplomatic, economic and military components. The Philippine government needs to translate the employment and prioritization of these elements into a national security framework towards achieving its national interest of “ensuring its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the well-being of its people and institutions are preserved, protected and enhanced” as mandated by the Philippine Constitution. In framing the NSS, the national interest should then be the precept. However, although universally used, global interpretation of the notion of ‘national interest’ is highly diverse and does not have a fixed definition. Conversely, there is a basic need to contextualize the concept of national interest to better guide the framing of a strategy to promote national security.
2024
This Fellow’s Paper analyzes President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s call for a “paradigm shift” in the Philippines’ approaches to the South China Sea (SCS) conflict in 2024. A deconstruction of the substance and structure of his apparent policy discourse aims to contribute to a better understanding of its meaning, as well as implications for policy-making, at both domestic and strategic levels. This is especially so when the President’s well-publicized pronouncement of a “paradigm shift” is made as basis for policy determination In addressing the research questions of a discourse analysis, this Paper discusses the philosophy of “paradigm shift” from an academic perspective of policy research. It uses this as a fundamental frame of analyzing the internal logic and contextual setting of Marcos’ “paradigm shift” rhetoric to address the SCS dispute. It then presents the order of interests at stake and the intensity of issues at hand in the SCS. Lastly, the Paper argues that the long-standing policy paradigm of the Philippines—as a peace-loving ASEAN nation and a rules-based state—remains the order in resolving disputes and relating with other countries.