THE PHILIPPINES’ FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD CHINA ON THE ISSUE OF SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE UNDER PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III (2010 – 2016)

Abstract

ea Dispute under President Benigno Aquino III (2010 – 2016) Despite China’s growing expansion in the South China Sea since 1995, the Philippines had been adopting different foreign policy responses over the years. It was only under Benigno Aquino that the Philippines began to pursued a stronger foreign policy in preserving the country’s territorial sovereignty. President Aquino shifted the foreign policy from accommodation to direct confrontations towards China through a balancing policy. These new foreign policy agenda include military modernization, enhancement of defense partnership with the US and Japan, and the use of PCA in 2013. Using the neoclassical realism theory by Gideon Rose, this thesis aims to examine the underlying factors that contributes to the significant shift. Ultimately, this thesis found that the shift in President Aquino’s policy was influenced by two determinant factors, which are external and internal factors. In terms of external factors, it was the combination of heightened tension, ASEAN stagnant progress and failure in having collective stance, the use of PCA to win the dispute, and the defense alliance with the US and Japan that have same interest in the region. While for the internal factors, this thesis found that the shift was also affected by the security and economic interest of the Philippines, pressure from the political elites from the domestic politics, as well as the AFP weaker defense capability in comparison with China’s advance military might. All of these variables formed a comprehensive foreign policy that allows President Aquino to be more risk-taking and played the two-level game in accommodating all of the external and internal factors through a balancing policy towards China.