CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background The Philippines and the United States of America have a long history. After the U.S won the war in Spanish American War of 1898, the U.S. colonized the Philippines and had a war resulting 4,200 Americans and over 20,000 Philippines combatants died (Traywick, 2014). On July 4, 1902 the Philippine-American war officially ended. It took decades for the Philippines to finally obtain its independence. In July, 1946 the U.S. finally granted the Philippines independence but they still had trade negotiations and military cooperation. It took many years to discuss during which the U.S. maintained military facilities in the Philippines. The Philippines and the United States signed the Military Bases Agreement of 1947 which allowed the United States to operate two bases on two islands, Clark Air Base which housed the 13 th Air Force and Subic Naval Base which was the largest American naval installation outside the United States. It was favored by Manuel Quezon, the President of the Philippines, but many Filipinos and senators opposed because of the Philippine American War. The Philippines were aware that their military power was still very weak and then the President committed to support one another in the event of an attack by a third party by signing mutual defense treaty. By this treaty, the Philippines got some back-up from the U.S. preventing from any countries who disturbed their sovereignty. In Marcos period, U.S.-Philippine ties grew even stronger. It was during Vietnam War, American bases in the Philippines supported U.S. forces. The U.S provided $900 million in
security assistance. There are some pros and cons to the U.S presence in the Philippines. The Philippines sees the U.S. as a colonist, which threatens their sovereignty, and some other see that the Philippines military power is very weak. And finally in September 16, 1991 the Philippine Senate closed U.S. military bases. In 1999, the Philippine and U.S. governments signed a Visiting Forces Agreement that allowed for annual military training exercises, which in recent times had also included humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR). In my opinion, public sentiment is against the idea of having permanent US troops in the country or even the thought of allowing US troops to run their own military bases again in the country (Pitlo, 2014). It during the reign of President Benigno Aquino III has linked its military modernization and overall external defense to the U.S. rebalance. The U.S. has raised its military assistance by two-thirds to $50 million and provided surplus military equipment. Finally after eight rounds of negotiations, finally in April 28, 2014 President Barack Obama signed a new military pact with the Philippines, granting a larger presence for U.S in Southeast Asia. It was celebrated the American administrations rebalance to Asia. B. Research Question Why did the Philippines decide to offer basing facilities to the U.S. Military? C. Purpose of Research 1. To identify the advantages and the disadvantages of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement for the Philippines. 2. To describe the relevance of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement for the Philippines.
3. To apply the theory and concept of International Relations in order to explain the case study that happens in the Philippines. D. Theoretical Framework Departing from the problem above, the author takes the basic framework of concept by using Realist Theory and Rational Choice Theory. Through this theory the author can answer the question raised, as well as will know the answer of the question Why did the Philippine decide to offer basing facilities to the U.S. Military? 1. Realist Theory The author will examine the problem of the Philippines why they decided to offer basing facilities to the U.S. Military by realist theory. In the discipline of International Relations there are contending general theories or theoretical perspectives. Realism point of view to international politics stresses its competitive and conflictual side. Realists consider the principal actors in the international arena are the states, which are concerned with their own security act in pursuit of their own national interests and struggle for power (Zalta & Nodelman, 2013 A. National Interest According to realist, foreign policy is determined by national interest. National interests are a country goals and ambitions such as geography, natural resources, industrial capacity, military preparedness, economy and population. In Realism concept, the national interest of a state is multi-faceted. The primary interest is the state's survival and security. In this case, the national interest of the Philippine is its sovereignty in the South China Sea. The South China Sea is at the centre of Southeast Asia. Competition rather than cooperation has been the prevailing characteristic of the relations among the littoral states, with each state seeks to give real effect to its sovereign and jurisdictional claims.
Most importantly the Philippines deserve to protect its sovereignty because in the disputed area has the most important resource at stake such as oil and natural gas reserves. The proven reserves are estimated to be 7 billion barrels of oil, currently producing 2.5 billion barrels a day. Although, there are no countries which have legal authority to claim, they deserve to get natural gas because the need of natural gas in their region are rapidly increasing (Weatherbee, 2009). National Interest Foreign Policy Figure 1.1 Theory of National Interest Many states, especially in modern times, regard the preservation of the nation's culture as of great importance. Based on figure 1.1, national interest is always determined by foreign policy. National interest of the Philippines is to keep its natural resources in South China Sea. South China Sea is rich for natural resources, fisheries. South China Sea is also well known as a trade routes and military bases. In order to keep its national interest, the Philippine creates a foreign policy. The foreign policy is the Philippines government decided to sign military cooperation by offering basing facilities to the U.S. military, Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Morgenthau argues, Does not endow its key concept of interest defined as power with a meaning that is fixed once for all. The idea of interest is indeed the essence of politics and is unaffected by the circumstances of time and place. Yet the kind of interest determining political action in a particular period of history depends upon the political and cultural context within which foreign policy is formulated. The goals that might be pursued by nations in their foreign policy can run the whole gamut of objectives any nation has ever pursued or might possibly pursue. National interest is the main pillars of the theory of foreign policy and international political realist. He states that national interest of each country is the pursuit of power, for
example, a country can establish a power to control other countries. Relations of power or control can be created through coercion or cooperation. Thus Morgenthau also states that national interest is the minimum ability of the state to protect, and maintain the physical identity, politics, and culture of other countries disturbances. From this review the state leaders decrease specific policies against other countries that are in cooperate or in conflict. Relating to Morgenthau s point of view, the creation of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement is the implication of the South China Sea dispute and weak military power of the Philippines. When the Philippines feel oppressed by China, the Philippines need some partners to cooperate and protect its sovereignty. Realists take the international system to be in anarchy in which states as the main actor in International Relations which are determined mainly by consideration of power and national interest. For realists bipolarity is a more secure international system than multipolarity both in terms of the strength of the system itself and the balance between conflict and order that triumph within the order (Jensen, 2011). B. Balance of Power Theory To ease the author in analyzing the problem in South China Sea between the Philippine and China, the author tried to analyze the concept of balance of power. This concept can be applied because in this problem there are several parties who involved in South China Sea. The involved of the United States supporting the Philippine can be seen as to attack the great power of China.
PRC Disputed Area PH The U.S. Figure 1.2 Balance of Power Theory Balance of Power emphasizes the effectiveness of the control of the country strength by balancing other countries. Based on Balance of Power theory, the state should respond to emerging threats to the defense and security by increasing military capabilities while making alliances with other countries. The policy is created in order to maintain territorial threats. There are two patterns of balance of power. The pattern of direct opposition and the pattern of competition. In this case, the agreement is about the pattern of direct opposition by cooperating with the U.S. in order to balance the China power in the South China Sea. The effect of China assertiveness in South China Sea makes the Philippines feel insecure and attempt to equalize the power by improving its security and defense. The Philippines tried to build alliances with the United States in the form of geo-strategy to maintain territorial security and threats. In the other hand, the Philippines has national interest in the disputed region which is rich in natural resources such as oil and gases. Balance of Power considers that the actions of the Philippines increase the robustness and security as well as improve the alliance which will trigger the counter balancing of one or more other countries. Therefore, the efforts of the Philippines in balancing strength create stable relations between the Philippines and the U.S. Balance of Power does not cause a war because each country is powerful has a fear to attack
first. The Philippines with the U.S. actually just give a signal to China that China should respect international norms and laws. It will not directly attack one another. Speaking Balance of Power means speaking during the cold war. At that time the balance of power was held by the two powerful countries, namely the United States and the Soviet Union. The time changed, there is no Soviet Union anymore but People s Republic of China, the rising Asian power, whose broad territorial claims have caused tensions with its neighbors, was only topped by the U.S. and Russia in terms of military power. The US is helping the Philippines to modernize and improve its military capability in the face of a growing confrontation with China over supremacy in the South China Sea The agreement between the Philippines and the United States of America is a reflection of Balance of Power Theory. The Philippines military power is very weak if compare to People s Republic of China military power. The Philippines increased military capabilities by signing military agreement with the United States of America in order to back the Philippine military up. Realism sees that international politics based on the struggle for power, international politics is essentially power politics. The EDCA gives the U.S. troops wider access to Philippine bases and allows joint activities between the two countries militaries. The prepositioning of US equipment within Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) locations is to accommodate the construction of related facilities such prepositioning, as well as other enhanced defense cooperation activities. It will require future negotiations such as which army bases the US military may use. The Philippine Ambassador for Malaysia, Eduardo Malaya said that First and foremost to us is the protections and promotion of our Philippine national interest." As cited in (Gutierrrez, 2014: 8) The EDCA can counter balance China, in order to protect and promote the
Philippine national interests. The U.S. is committed to the Philippines defense if the Philippines is attacked by China. 2. Rational Actor Model The author also used another concept in order to ease the author to analyze the problems that are faced by the Philippines. In the case of the Philippine decided to offer the basing facilities to the U.S. military, the author focused on the benefits of the Philippine foreign policy. To explain this case, the author used the decision making process of foreign political concept from Graham T. Allison. In International Relations, foreign policy is quite complex. Foreign policy is the effort of the states in order to promote and reach their national interests. Foreign policy is a rational action of the states in order to reach their goals and national interests in international arena. Theories in International Relations which study about foreign policy is founded by Graham T. Allison who writes Essence of Decision: There are three models offered by Allison, (1971:5) 1) Rational Actor Model 2) Organizational Process Model 3) Bureaucratic Politics Model. In order to explain and analyze the problems, the author used Rational Actor Model. Rational Actor model is one model developed by Graham T Allison. In this making process, the author used rational actor model to ease the author to describe the decision making process. Figure 1.3 Rational Actor Model
Each state is described as a rational actor who always acts as its own interests to safeguard the sovereignty and achieve national interests. This model describes that decision makers make alternatives policies to obtain optimal results. Rational Actor model according to Allison, 1971:11 which has the principle of "maximize their gains, minimize their loses". The point is that, how the actors can get more benefits with low cost. In Rational Actor model, state s foreign policy is based on cost and the benefit that the state can get. Table 1.1 The Benefits and Cost of the Philippines if offering basing facilities to the U.S. military Options Benefits Costs Signing the Agreement 1. Help the Philippines military power. The Philippine military, one of Asia s weakest. 2. Help the Philippines keeps its sovereignty more secure 3. Be more ready when disasters come. 1.Make Philippines really depend on the U.S. and the Philippine military is under control of the U.S. 2.Disturb strategic partnership with China. Not Signing the Agreement 1. Lead the Philippines to achieve its independence 2. Put the Philippines in direct negotiation without any third party with China. 1.Threaten the Philippine sovereignty 2.Military equipment of the Philippine lagged far from other states in ASEAN. 3.Not able to get assistance when the typhoon disaster happens From the table 1.1 it is clear that the EDCA or military cooperation creates advantages and disadvantages for The Philippine. In this case, the Philippines position was really in dilemma because of the US involvement in The Philippines is quite high. In the other hand, The Philippines also want to keep its sovereignty in the disputed area.
To maintain its national interests especially in sovereignty is very fundamental for the Philippine. However it needs a back-up from a super power country to keep its sovereignty and also maintain the military power of the Philippines. The decisions taken by the state is a result of the rationalization of the problems faced. This is for the government, as a representative of the country, the main actor in the decision making. E. Hypothesis From the basic ideas that have been applied, in this research the hypotheses as follows: The Philippine offered the basing facilities because of by having military cooperation with the United States, the Philippine got back-up from the US to make their sovereignty more secure. F. Method of Research The type of research used in this study is descriptive. Hence the author tried to explain the reasons behind the decision taken by The Philippines which to offer the basing facilities to the U.S. military. In using the methods, the author used data gathering techniques such as document study done by collecting secondary data. In this study, the information is derived from several relevant published sources such as books, journals, news, official websites and electronic data (internet) that are related to the subject of the research. G. Range of Research In order to focus on the research, this research will be limited from 1947 when the Philippine allowed the United States to operate two bases on two islands, Clark Air Base which is located in the 13 th Air Force and Subic Naval Base there happened the largest American naval installation outside of the United States until 1991 when it was some pro and cons to the U.S presence in the Philippines. In 2014 was the year when the Philippines and the United States of
America after signed up military cooperation Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, after it takes a long time debate to call back the U.S. to help and cooperate with the Philippine military. H. System of Writing The outline of this thesis is as described as followed: Chapter I This chapter contains the introduction. In this chapter outlines the background, the purpose of research, the research question, the theoretical framework, the hypothesis, the method of research, the range of research and the system of writing. Chapter II This chapter, the author will analyze the Philippine National Interests in the South China Sea which consists of the definition of National Interests, The national goals of the Philippines based on the Preamble of the Constitution, and also the action and efforts of the Philippines in securing its sovereignty over South China Sea. Chapter III This chapter examines the United States Military back-up. In the third chapter, the author will examine the content of military agreement between the U.S. and the Philippines with its implications. Chapter IV This chapter analyzes foreign policy decision making process in Philippines especially analyzing the cost and benefits of the agreement. Chapter V This chapter contains the conclusion and summarizes the research. In this chapter, the author will draw conclusion from the chapter one until to chapter five.