US – PHILIPPINES RELATIONSHIP AS INFLUENCED BY EXTERNAL THREATS FROM 1946 TO 2014

Abstract

This research study asserts that perceived external threats affected the relationship between the US and the Philippines between 1946 and 2014. For the purpose of this research, an external threat is defined more broadly including all threats to the official government structure of the country. This research study used case studies to examine key points in US-Philippine history. The selected time periods were chosen due to their significant change in the relationship between the US and the Philippines. These time periods include when the Philippines achieved independence in 1945 to the establishment of the “Mutual Defense Treaty” in 1952, the 1988 “Military Basing Negotiations”, in 2001 when the Exercise Balikatan was expanded, and 2014 when the “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement” was signed. This analysis of the relationship between the US and the Philippines concluded that during the periods examined perceived external threats impacted the relationship between the US and the Philippines. It also gives light to areas lacking scholarship that would enable this assertion to be extended to the complete history of the US and the Philippines. The perceived threats to the US are well documented in both scholarship and policy. However, during much of the history the Philippines is portrayed by US scholars to be internally focused. This illuminated the lack of US scholarship incorporating the well documented the Philippine perception of external threats. Even though the two countries share a history of bilateral military exercises, there is no body of scholarship that documents the history or evolution of military cooperation since 1945. While the position of the Philippines on certain issues including nationalism and post-colonial remnants is captured, the literature documenting the history of the relationship between the US and the Philippines, as a whole, does not pay adequate attention to the Filipino perspective.