Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Philippines alliance has been the sick man of the U.S. regional security architecture. (The alliance with Thailand is nothing to write home about but it feels like a steady-state relationship: weak but without much expected of it). That status has changed in recent years and today the partnership between Washington and Manila has become the axis of a broader regional network. It’s remarkable progress and an evolution that is especially important for Japan as it sets a new course for its own regional security policy.
The Philippines’ slide in the eyes of the U.S. began with the termination of the basing agreements at Clark and Subic in 1992. The closure of the two largest U.S. military facilities cast the Philippines to the periphery of U.S. concerns, a positioning that was not helped by the country’s chronic political and economic instability.
The rise of China refocused attention on the sprawling archipelago, given the country’s critical location straddling Southeast Asian sea lanes and position within the first island chain. As Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, a military analyst at Tokyo International University explained in an email, the Philippines “is pretty much at the center of the Indo-Pacific.”
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