The Missionary Review - Volume 26 - Google Books Result. This in turn keeps the United States and its allies safe and their shared interests protected.

They allow the country to forward-deploy significant military forces thousands of miles from the homeland, deterring aggression and quickly responding to regional security challenges. alliance network, along with American territories in the region, have made the United States a resident power and helped maintain stability in Asia. interest in the South China Sea, at least since the end of World War II, has been to uphold defense commitments without being dragged into the arguments of U. It is built on more than a century of cultural interchange, deep personal connections, shared sacrifice, and common interests. Philippine relationship is at once vital and conflicted. Manila has repeatedly reached the same conclusion. There have been some close calls on both sides, but Washington has determined over and over that its oldest alliance in Asia is too valuable to let slip away. It continues to balance that commitment with its long-standing neutrality on territorial claims. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty applies to any attack on Philippine forces in the South China Sea. Over the past four decades, Washington has slowly clarified that the U. The rise of Chinese power and its clear revisionist intent would make the rapid diminution of U. The American alliance network would face a crisis-of both confidence and capability-at a time when it is needed most. capability and will to remain a regional security provider. Other allies and partners would naturally question the U. The ability of the United States to project power and respond to crises in Southeast Asia would be severely compromised if it lost access to Philippine territory. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) represents the work of decades spent negotiating and codifying those freedoms.Īnd were the United States to be seen as abandoning the Philippines to Chinese aggression, it would ripple well beyond the South China Sea. Today it stabilizes international commerce, mitigates naval tensions, and guarantees equitable access to resources. That commitment helped underwrite American prosperity and security. Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, especially to historic rights throughout the so-called nine-dash line, threaten the centuries-old U. Naval vessels have operated continuously in Asia ever since. In many ways, that cycle continues to this day.

bases without even a credible American commitment of support in the South China Sea, where they faced potential violence? This kicked off a cycle of negotiations over the scope and value of the alliance. Philippine officials wondered if the alliance had become a one-way street-were they making themselves a target by hosting U. military support.Īt the same time, perceived abandonment of South Vietnam and Taiwan raised worries about the credibility of other U. Manila would find it all but impossible to defend its maritime rights from growing Chinese encroachment without U. The last leaves one side often fearing abandonment and the other entrapment.

But it is also clouded by the history of colonization, political interference, unequal economic relations, and a huge disparity in power.

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