National Security Journal The Philippines' Institutionalised Alliance with the US: Surviving Duterte's China Appeasement Policy (original) (raw)
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National Security Journal, 2021
This paper examines the security partnership of the United States-Philippines during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. Using the theoretical framework of alliance institutionalisation, we identified several factors that can determine the strength of alliances and security partnerships. Applying this framework, we suggest that because of deep alliance institutionalisation, the security partnership between the Philippines and the United States is actually quite resilient despite President Duterte's position on this issue.
Alliance, Partnerships, And The Philippines' National Security Strategy
Eurasia Review, 2018
At eve of the 2018 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, European Council President Donald Tusk, in response to the criticisms from President Trump, reminded Washington to “appreciate your allies, after all you don’t have that many.” Tusk also called on Europe “spend more on your [defense], because everyone respects an ally that is well-prepared and equipped.” The same message is also true for the members of a network of alliances and partnerships—particularly for relatively smaller and weaker states, as well as their leaders—in the Indo-Asia-Pacific, a region facing immense foreign policy challenges against the backdrop of major powers competing for geopolitical preeminence. https://www.eurasiareview.com/03122018-alliance-partnerships-and-the-philippines-national-security-strategy-analysis/
The Role of Threat in the Dynamics of the Philippine-United States Alliance
Threat serves as an impetus in the foundation, development, revitalization, and waning of the contemporary Philippine-United States alliance. Using Stephen Walt’s balance of threat theory as the analytical framework, this study proves that, historically, the dynamics of the Philippine-U.S. alliance revolves around the interaction of threatcentric issues and the member-state’s response. Threat serves as the prime mover of the alliance; foreign aid, ideological solidarity, and institutional penetration do not guarantee the alliance stability. They do, however, serve as critical factors in the alliance management. Shared or unshared existential threats with external overtones have a greater impact on the alliance. Moreover, internal security threats affect alliance efficiency. A coordinated approach is needed to confront and master them. The Philippine Communist Insurgency of the CPP-NPA-NDF, the South China Sea Dispute with China, the ambiguity of 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty provisions including its executory mechanisms, and U.S. “strategic ambivalence” in the case of conflict serve as disconnecting factors of the Philippine-U.S. alliance. These factors created and continue to create friction between the Philippines and the United States. This study recommends that the allies must align their threat assessments, resolve or manage disconnecting threats, and then address the ambiguity of the agreement through further research and deeper strategic discourse.
Political Geography Quarterly, 1990
Following the admonition of that international relations scholars 'need to reconceptualizeexactly whut it is that we want to study, and why', the authors attempt to understand alliances through the broader context of geopolitics and geopolitical perspectives on international relations. Using the ecological triad framework of the Sprouts, and Starr's 'opportunity and willingness' framework. alliances are viewed as part of the geopolitical constraints on available possibilities in the system, as part of the set of incentive structures that affect foreign policy decision-making, and as a central mechanism that permits decision-makers to overcome the geopolitical constraints of the system. Drawing on analogies with technology and borders, alliances can be viewed as important tools for overcoming the constraints of geopolitics, and for changing the meaning of the supposedly 'permanent' nature of international geography.
2014
This article examines the Philippines’ strategy of external balancing against an aggressive China as it intensifies its security ties with the United States, its only strategic and long-standing ally. This course of action aims to strengthen the country’s defense relations with the United States, particularly in developing the territorial defense capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In this process, the Philippines finds it similarly essential to establish security ties with other bilateral defense partners of the United States, such as Japan, South Korea, and Australia. In conclusion, the article argues that fostering informal security arrangements with these countries enables the Philippines to confront a pressing and persistent maritime issue in Southeast Asia: China’s expansion in the South China Sea. Key words: alliances, external balancing, hub-and-spokes, Philippine–US relations, Philippine defense policy, internal balancing.
How do territorial disputes transform alliances? How are alliances transformed? This article examines how the Philippines' territorial dispute with China over the Spratlys compels it to strengthen its security ties with the United States. Specifically, it observes that China's realpolitik approach to the quarrel shifts the focus of the Philippine-U.S. security relationship from counterterrorism/counterinsurgency to developing the AFP's maritime/territorial defense capabilities. It also analyzes how this contentious issue impacts on the alliance in terms of: (1) reformulation of its threat perception, (2) the hegemon's prerogative, (3) the process of institutionalization, (4) the strategy of institutionalization, and (5) the intra-alliance bargaining process. In conclusion, the article notes that the reconfiguring of the Philippine-U.S. alliance, which has been revitalized in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, aims to address the major security challenge of the twenty-first century-China's emergence and increasing assertiveness as a regional power.
Invasion by invitation: The role of alliances in the Asia-Pacific
Australian Journal of International Affairs, 2015
Alliances continue to occupy a prominent place in the Asia-Pacific’s security architecture. For many regional states such as Australia and Japan, their respective alliances with the USA are the unchallenged foundations of their security. But when the rise of China is causing major change in the region, and when many countries are increasingly reliant on China economically, is the region’s network of alliances any longer appropriate or useful? This article reviews alliances in theory and practice, and argues that, while alliances are unlikely to disappear, their utility is nothing like as clear-cut as many of their supporters would have one believe.